Lesson · Spelling to Sound · Letters you do not say

Letters You Do Not Say

Some letters are written and not said: the k in know, the b in climb, the gh in night. A student can take these as a long list of surprises. Counted on the 2,800 words, most of them follow rules with no misses, and one group, ough, has no rule at all.

Open the interactive lesson Practice

gh after a vowel never says g 42 of 42 knee, write, climb, autumn, walk, calm one letter silent in each 19 of 19 h is said in 77 of 80 ough has 5 sounds in 10 words

Counted on the 2,800 words

Core ideas

What this lesson establishes

Three ideas.

Silent letters sit in a few fixed places

The silent letter is not anywhere in the word. It is the k at the start of kn, the w at the start of wr, the b at the end of mb, the n at the end of mn, and the l in alk, olk, alm and alf. Learn six places and you can find them.

A loose rule can be right every time

The rule for gh is that, after a vowel letter, it is never said as g. That is right on all 42 words. But the rule allows two answers: silent, as in night, or f, as in enough. A score of 42 of 42 tells you what gh is not. It does not tell you which of two sounds it is.

Some groups have no rule to score

Ten common words have ough in them, and they are said five ways. No rule can be right about all of them. When a spelling has no rule, the honest thing is to count the sounds and learn the words.

The material

Where the rules are exact, and where they are not

Two rules have no misses. One has three. One is a count, not a rule.

Say knee. You do not say the k. Say write, and you do not say the w. English is known for letters of this kind, and a student often takes them as one more thing to remember word by word.

The table asks a plainer question. For each group of silent letters, how many of the words in the list follow the rule?

Never g: 42 words

Take every word with a vowel letter followed by gh. There are 42 of them. The rule is that gh is not said as g, and the rule is right on all 42, which is 100.0%.

Read the rows and two groups appear. In 35 words gh is silent: night, right, high, daughter, eight, through. In seven it is said as f: cough, enough, laugh, laughter, rough, roughly and tough. Every word with igh in it is in the first group.

So a perfect score hides a choice. The rule keeps you from saying g and does not help you choose between nothing and f. All seven f words have ough or augh, but so do though, through and daughter, where the gh is silent, so the letters alone do not decide.

One letter drops out of six groups

The second rule covers six places. Kn at the start of a word is said as n, with five words: knee, know, knife, knock and knowledge. Wr is said as r, with four: wrap, write, writer and wrong. At the end of a word, mb drops the b in bomb and climb, and mn drops the n in autumn, column and damn. The l is silent in folk, talk and walk, and in calm and half.

That is 19 words, and the rule is right on all 19. Most of these letters were said once, long ago, and the spelling kept them after the speech lost them. You do not need the history. You need the six places.

The letter h: said, except in three words

The third rule is that an h at the start of a word, before a vowel letter, is said. On 80 words it is right 77 times, which is 96.3%. The three misses are honest, honor and hour. They are three words to learn, and the other 77 need no note. Outside the list, heir drops its h in the same way, and in American speech so does herb.

Ten words, five sounds

The last group has no rule to score. Ten words in the list contain ough, and the dictionary, a book that records how words are said, gives five different sounds. Though and although end with oh. Through and throughout end with oo. Enough, rough, roughly and tough share one sound. Cough has its own, and so does ought.

A fair score here would be low, and no rule would help. The table counts the sounds and prints each word beside its sound instead. That is the honest form of the answer.

Interactive

A spelling rule against the dictionary

Each rule reads only the letters; the dictionary says what is actually said

the rule—

words scored—

the rule is right—

share right—

wrong—

the words it gets wrong—

set aside—

different sounds—

Where the sounds come from

Every sound, part count and strong part here is read from the first pronunciation in CMUdict, the Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary, which records American speech. Its licence asks that this notice travel with anything made from it:

Copyright (C) 1993-2015 Carnegie Mellon University. All rights reserved.

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This work was supported in part by funding from the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, the Office of Naval Research and the National
Science Foundation of the United States of America, and by member
companies of the Carnegie Mellon Sphinx Speech Consortium. We acknowledge
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Method

Reading a word with a letter you may not say

Four steps.

Look for the fixed places

Is there a kn or wr at the start, an mb or mn at the end, or an l after a or o and before k or m?

Drop the letter that sits in a silent place

Knee is said nee. Write begins with r. Climb ends in m.

Choose between silent and f

After i it is silent. After ou or au check the word: it is f in enough, laugh and tough.

Say the h unless the word is hour, honest or honor

These three are the only words in the table where an h at the start is silent.

Check yourself

Score 0 / 0

Choose the answer you can justify.

Twenty-two words and the letter each one drops

Each line shows a group and its words. The first letter or pair of letters is the one that is not said.

kn knee, know, knife, knock, knowledge wr wrap, write, writer, wrong mb bomb, climb mn autumn, column, damn lk walk, talk, folk lm calm, half h hour, honest, honor

These are the 19 words of the second rule, and in every one the dictionary gives no sound for the letter. The last line is the three words where the h is not said, set against 77 words where it is, such as have, hair, hand and happy.

Common mistakes

Believing English has no rules for silent lettersOn the list, gh after a vowel is never said as g, in 42 of 42 words. The letters kn, wr, mb, mn, lk and lm each drop one letter in all 19 of theirs.

Reading a perfect score as a full ruleThe gh rule is right 42 times in 42, but it does not say whether to say f or nothing. Seven words say f: cough, enough, laugh, laughter, rough, roughly and tough. The other 35 are silent.

Saying the last group one wayThe ten words in the list with ough in them are said five ways. Though and although end in oh, through and throughout in oo, and cough and ought are two more sounds again.

Check your understanding

✓

Finish when you can look at a word with a silent letter in it, say which letter is not said, and tell the groups that follow a rule from the one that does not.

You should be able to apply each of three silent-letter rules, read its score off the table, name the three words where h is not said, and say how many different sounds ough has in ten common words.

Note: Three of these rules have a score of 100.0% or close to it, and that is because each has a clear place to look. The loose rule, for gh, and the rule with no score, for ough, are the two where you must still learn words, and the h rule leaves you three.