Silent Letters in Common Words - American English Pronunciation

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer. Let's talk about silent

letters in English. Sometimes letters are written, but not said, for example, the

number two. It's written with a W, but we don't say it.

We don't say /twoʊ/. We say /tu/. W is silent. In the word "photo," although you don't

hear the P and H separately, the letters aren't silent. P and H combine to form a

single consonant sound. /f/ Photo. What sound do S and H make together? /ʃ/ as in "show."

What about who? W-H-O. Who. Which letter is silent? The W. Let's go over some common

words with silent letters. It will help you understand spelling and

pronunciation patterns. Comb. Numb. But be careful. When the B starts a new

syllable, then we say the M and the B, as in combination, number. Sign. Be careful.

When N starts another syllable, then we say the G and the N separately, as in

signal, signature. There are a lot of words with a silent GH: through, though,

although, weigh, neighbor, height, high, light, night, tight, tonight, sight, daughter,

ought, straight. First, all the WH words: what, why, where, when. Other words that

start with a WH: whether, white, while. Some words start with an H, but the H is

silent, as an honest, honesty, hour, herb, herbal. But those are exceptions. Most of

the time, we do say H at the beginning of a word, as in hot, hungry, hat,

hi, how. Know, knowledge, knife, knee. Half, talk, walk, chalk. Island, isle. Castle, whistle,

listen, fasten. Two, who, write, wrote, written, wrist, wreck. Read some sentences with me.

If you want to test yourself, then pause the video. Read the sentences aloud. Then

go on and see if your pronunciation matches mine. I saw a sign that signaled

a narrow bridge two miles ahead. My neighbor walked

straight through my gate and up to my door. Although our hotel room was small,

we were up high on the eighth floor, so we had a good view of the island. Do you

know why Leigh's daughter looks like a wreck? Did you talk to her? My feet grew

numb in the cold night air. Honestly, I was freezing. That's all for now. I hope

this was helpful. Please like the video. As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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