English Language- Spelling and Pronunciation: Silent Letters (Part-II)

                    

                         English Language- Spelling and Pronunciation: Silent Letters (Part-II)

Dear readers, so far, we have learnt that there is no relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English. It is this complex nature of spelling and pronunciation that often confuses non-native speakers of English frequently. In the previous post, we learnt the silent letter words A, B, C, D, E in English. Having understood this fact, let us look at some silent letters, namely, G, H, I, K, L, and their pronunciations in English.  The letters highlighted in the following are not pronounced while speaking, but there is no such exemption in writing.

1.      Words with silent letter “G”

-        Design as        (Disain)

-        Sign as            (Sain)

-        Foreign as       (Foreen)

-        Assignment as (Assainment)

-        Resign as         (Resain)

2.    Words with silent letter “H”

-        Honest as        (Aanest)

-        Hour as           (Our)

-        Rhyme as        (Raim)

-        Rough as         (Ruff)

-        School as        (Scool)

3.     Words with silent letter “I”

-        Business as     (Bisness)

-        Parliament as (Parlament)

4.    Words with silent letter “K”

-        Know as          (No)

-        Knowledge as (Noledge)

-        Knife as          (Naif)

-        Knee as           (Nee)

-        Knight as         (Night)

5.     Words with silent letter “L”

-        Calm as           (Caam)

-        Palm as           (Paam)

-        Talk as            (Taak)

-         Calf as            (Kaaf)

-        Would             (Wood)

Let us explore more about the remaining silent letter words in the English language in the next post.

Author:

K. Nandhakumar

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)

Coimbatore- 641 020