Silent Letters: When NOT to pronounce B, D, and L in English

1,643,794 views ・ 2016-08-09

English with Emma


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi, there. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you about silent sounds.
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So I'm going to teach you about "b", "d", and "l" in words where we don't pronounce
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them. So, this is a pronunciation video, as well as a spelling video. Okay? So, if you
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have trouble with pronunciation and spelling, this video is for you.
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So, I'm going to first explain... Actually, let's first look at a couple words. I have
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the word, here: "climb", "Wednesday", and "walk". These words have something that's
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the same in all of them. Okay? They have multiple things that's the same in all of them, but
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I want you to listen for the pronunciation. "Climb". Is there something in here we don't
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pronounce? "Climb". If you said: "'b'. We do not pronounce the 'b'", you are correct.
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What about "Wednesday"? "Wednesday". Am I pronouncing the "d" in this? "Wednesday".
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No. I do not pronounce the "d". Okay? And what about "walk"? "Walk". Is there something
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I'm not pronouncing in this word? "Walk". Do I pronounce every letter? No. "Walk". Okay,
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so the "l"... If you said: "The 'l'", I'm not pronouncing the "l", you're correct. So,
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in this video we're going to look at a bunch of words, and we're going to learn some rules
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with their pronunciation when we don't pronounce these sounds or these letters. Okay?
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So let's get started with words like "climb", the silent "b". Okay? So, silent "b" means
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sometimes in a word we do not pronounce a "b". When is this true? Well, the first rule
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with the silent "b" is we don't pronounce "b" when there's an "m" before it. Okay? So
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you notice "b"... "mb". If you see an "m" and a "b" right after it, the "b" becomes
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silent. So, we don't ever say: "Clim-b", no, no, no. We say: "Clime". For spelling, we
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have the "b", but for pronunciation, we don't.
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So, let's look at some other words. "Dumb". Okay? Do you hear a "b" sound in there? "Dumb".
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No. So, again, you'll notice there's an "m" and a "b", we see the "m", so we know no pronunciation
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of the "b" sound. For those of you who don't know the word "dumb", it means the same thing
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as stupid. You know, "That man is very dumb", "That man is very stupid", they have the same
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meaning. Okay, we have another word, here: "comb". Okay? So, "comb" is like you comb
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your hair in the morning. Do you hear the "b" sound? "Comb". No, there's no "b" sound,
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because again, we have this "m", so that means no "b" pronunciation. Okay.
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You see this? This is a "thumb". We have our fingers and our thumb. Now, what do you notice
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in the spelling of this? You're going to notice a pattern, here. We have "m", so do we pronounce
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the "b"? No, we do not pronounce the "b". So, we don't say: "Thum-b". No. We say: "Thum".
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Okay, "bomb". If you think about a bomb, an explosion. Right? "Bomb". Again, same rule,
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if you have an "m", you do not pronounce the "b". So we don't say: "Bom-b", no. We say:
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"Bom", and we get rid of this. Okay, the last word we'll look at for "mb" pronunciation:
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"limb". So, your limbs are your arms and your legs. Okay? So, arms and legs are the same
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thing as your limbs. Now, do we pronounce the "b", here? If you said: "No", you are
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correct, because as you can see, there's an "m", so we don't pronounce the "b".
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Okay, so there's another rule when it comes to "b" pronunciation. Okay. I want you to
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now look over here. "b" and "t". This word: "debt". Do you hear the "b" in the pronunciation?
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"Debt". You shouldn't hear the "b". I did not pronounce the "b", because when you have
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"b" and right after "t", usually you don't pronounce the "b". There are always exceptions
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to this rule, but in general, if you see "b" and "t", usually you do not pronounce the
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"b". So, "debt". I've heard many students say: "De-bt", and they get really tongue twisted.
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We don't... Don't worry about that, because you don't have to pronounce the "b".
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Okay, let's look at some of our other words. "Doubt". Again, if you like the band No Doubt,
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okay, with Gwen Stefani, her old band, you don't have to worry because you don't pronounce
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the "b", it's just: "Dout". This word: "subtle" is a word many native speakers make mistakes
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with, because native speakers actually see the "b" and they really want to say it, but
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it's incorrect. We don't say: "Sub-tle". No. You don't need to worry about the "b" again
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because right after it is a "t", so we can get rid of this. "Sutle", "sutle", okay? So,
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now let's look at silent d's and when we don't pronounce d's in words.
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Okay, so the next sound we're going to look at is when we don't pronounce "d". Okay? So,
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our first rule about silent "d" is: "D" is not pronounced in... When you see spelled "g"
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and "d" together. Okay? So, for example, there's a job, "judge", like Judge Judy. It's similar
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to a lawyer, not exactly. But if you know the word "judge", we don't say: "Jud-ge",
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okay? We don't pronounce the "d". So, just cross that off: "juge". A lot of these words
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you might not know. That's okay if you don't know these words. Part of this is just actually
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learning the rule, so when you do learn these words in the future or you learn other words,
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you'll know how to pronounce them.
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"Hedge". Okay? A hedge is similar to a bush or, you know, it's not exactly a tree, but
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it's a type of plant. "Hedge", again, you say "d" and "g" together,
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we don't pronounce the "d".
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"Pledge". Okay? "Pledge", again... All of these, actually, kind of rhyme. You
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see the "d" and the "g" together, we don't pronounce the "d". "Grudge". "Grudge", same
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rule, "d" and "g" together. "Gruge". "Dodge". Okay? "d" and "g" are together, so we get
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rid of... "Doge". So, again, if you see "d" and "g", don't pronounce the "d".
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The other time "d" is not pronounced, there are certain words where we don't pronounce
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the "d". I don't know the exact reason why. This probably has to do with the history of
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the language. So, I've given some common words where we just don't pronounce the "d". The
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first one is: "Wednesday". Okay? For days of the week, we don't say: "Wed-nes-day".
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We say: "Wensday". So it's actually two syllable... Syllables. "Wens-day". "Wensday". So, actually
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this "e" you can even take out. "Wensday". Okay? Also, if you like to eat sandwiches,
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you don't need to say: "Sand-wich", okay? We say: "Sanwich". So the "d" is silent. "Sanwich".
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And finally, sometimes you want to talk about, you know, men who are handsome. And by the
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way, with this word "handsome", it kind of means beautiful or pretty, but it's for...
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Usually for men. We don't usually talk about handsome women. That has a bit of a different
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meaning. So, when we talk about men who are good looking, we use the word "handsome".
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I know you see the word, here, "hand", but we don't say: "Hand-some". We say: "Hansome",
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so it's as if this "d" isn't there. All right, so that's... So we've talked about silent
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b's and silent d's, now let's look at silent l's.
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So, "l" is silent in words like: "calm" and "talk". Okay? So, what's the rule for this?
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When do we not pronounce "l"? Well, we don't pronounce "l" after "a", "o", or "u". So,
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after these vowels, we usually don't pronounce "l", although there always are exceptions.
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Okay? So if you come across a word where you do pronounce it, this is the general rule,
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and there are exceptions. So, "calm". Okay? This is similar to relax. "c-a-l-m", we see
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the "a" here, so as a result: "com". We don't say: "Ca-lm". No. "Com". All right. A lot
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of students, this is a very important word: "talk". Okay? A lot of students want to say:
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"Ta-lk". "I ta-lked to my friend." We don't pronounce the "l", so we say: "Tak". Another
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very important word, okay, we have the "a", so this means this "l" is silent: "Wak".
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I know a lot of students have trouble with the pronunciation of "l", so this is really nice
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for you because these words you don't have to worry about pronouncing "l" at all. "Half".
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So, again, "half", no "l" because we have the "a" here. Okay.
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Now, these are our modals: "would", "should", "could". "Would", "should", "could". We have
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"o" and "u", so afterwards, you don't need to worry about this "l"; it's silent. So,
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we say: "Woud", "shoud", "coud". Okay? All right. This word, a lot of people mispronounce.
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It's a type of fish that people like to eat: "salmon". A lot of students want to say: "Sal-mon".
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"I like sal-mon." Don't worry about the "l", it's silent. "Samon".
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Our next word: "folk", it means people. If you ever watch President Obama giving a speech,
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he always used the word "folks", okay? He always says, you know... He's always talking...
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Instead of the word "people", he uses the word "folk" which is a little bit more informal.
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So, with the word "folk", there is no "l" pronunciation. "Fok". "Chalk", same thing.
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Again, we have the "a" here, which means no "l". "Chak". And I've already explained "could".
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The last word where... And there's many, these are just some examples of some common words.
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"Calf". Okay? So, a "calf" is a baby cow. For this word, "calf", you do not need to
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pronounce the "l"; it is silent. All right.
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So, there are many silent sounds in English which you don't have to pronounce. You might
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see them in the spelling, but just because you see them written does not mean you have to pronounce it.
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So, what I'd like you to do is come visit our website at www.engvid.com,
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and there you can practice all of these by taking our quiz.
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There's also other videos
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on pronunciation, so I highly recommend you visit our website. Until next time, take care.
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