Words with Silent Letters

Knowing where a word came from can help you to remember its spelling. Look at these examples. The silent letters are in colour:

	Old language	Original word	Meaning
debt	Latin	debitum	owe
rhinoceros	Greek	rhinokeras	horn
column	Latin	columna	pillar
receipt	Latin	receptere	receive

Some more words with silent p:

1. Starting with pneu- , from the Greek word for wind :

pneumatic

pneumonia

2. Starting with psy- , from the Greek word for life, soul :

psychic	psychiatry	psychiatrist	psychedelic
psychology	psychopath	psychosis	psychotherapy

3. Starting with ptero-, from the Greek word for wing :

pterodactyl

pterosaur

(also ptarmigan)

Some silent letters are there for a reason. They have no sound of their own but have a job to do. For example:

	Examples	Reason
e	tape theme ripe hope cute	e on the end is there to make the vowel sound long. See Unit 7.
d	badge hedge ridge judge	d is there to form a wall of two consonants and keep the vowel sound short. See Unit 19.
u	guest guide guy vague (also biscuit circuit)	e, i and y make g say its soft sound /j/ . The u is there to stop this happening. See Unit 19.

There are also some other silent letters which are parts of quite common spelling patterns. Therefore they have been included in other parts of this course.

Some examples, with the silent letters in colour:

tch	match ditch hutch	tch is used to make the /ch/ sound after a short vowel. See Unit 5.
ch	anchor chemist school	In words from ancient Greek, the /k/ sound is spelled ch. See Unit 5.
wh	which wheel why	The /w/ sound is often spelled wh. See Unit 5
ve	have live love prove	English words do not end in v - we add e. See Unit 4
sc	science scissors descend	A few words use both s and c to spell the /s/ sound. See Unit 20.
ea	dead weather dream seat	Many words use ea to spell the long or short /e/ sounds. See Units 6 and 7.
gh	tight bought caught	See Unit 7 for igh words. See Unit 17 for ough and augh words.
que	antique unique mosque	In French words the /k/ sound on the end can be spelled que. See Unit 4

Finally, a 'mixed bag' of silent letters which don't fit any if the groups so far:

build

friend

island

aisle

guard

guarantee

Go to the next page: A final proof-reading test

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Words with Silent Letters

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