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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) |  |
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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. |
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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 |
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Finally, a 'mixed bag' of silent letters which don't fit any if the groups so far: |
| build | friend | island | aisle | guard | guarantee |
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Go to the next page: A final proof-reading test |
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