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In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation.  Silent letters create problems for both native and non-native speakers of a language, as they make it more difficult to guess the spellings of spoken words or the pronunciations of written words.  More than 60% of English words have silent letters and nearly every letter of the English alphabet is silent in some word!

Silent Letters

The letter H is silent in the following situations:
• At the end of word preceded by a vowel -
e.g. cheetah, Sarah, messiah;
• Between two vowels -
e.g. annihilate, vehement, vehicle
• After the letter 'r' -
e.g. rhyme, rhubarb, rhythm
• After the letters 'ex' -
e.g. exhausting, exhibition, exhort.

Some examples of silent letters are:
• mb at the end of a word (silent b), e.g. comb, thumb, climb.
• sc at the beginning of a word followed by 'e' or 'i', (silent c), e.g. scene, scent, science, scissors
• kn (silent k), e.g. knife, knock, know.
• mn at the end of a word (silent n), e.g. damn, autumn, column
• ps at the beginning of a word (silent p), e.g. psalm, psychiatry, psychology
• ght (silent gh), e.g. night, ought, taught
• gn at the beginning of a word (silent g), e.g. gnome, gnaw, gnu
• bt (silent b), e.g. debt, doubt, subtle

Let our super game
Secret Sid
help solve the mysteries
of silent letters in words!
Click on the image to
find out more!

Information about silent letters sourced from:
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/silentletters01.html