English Pronunciation: Silent 'k'

Hi, this is Bill. And right now I have a very  

simple pronunciation video to go through with you. Now, sometimes in English, we have silent letters. 

Now, these are letters that appear in a word  but we don't say them when we read that word. 

so it can be a little difficult when  you're trying to listen or read. 

And I'm just going to  explain this one idea to you. 

And that is ‘k’ before ‘n’  at the beginning of a word. 

Now, you can see all the examples behind me. But of course, in this case, if you see KN  

at the beginning of a word, you do not say the ‘K’ sound. 

Okay. Just forget the K's there. 

Well don't forget ,but ignore it. Okay. 

Don't make that sound. So our first one here. 

This word is not ‘K-now’. Alright. 

That's horrible right there. What you want to do is,  

you just want to think ‘no’. And you should know this is like,  

“I know how to speak English.” Alright. 

These are the things you ‘know’ how to d. It's not ‘k-now’. 

We just know. I know how to do things. 

Alright. And then down to ‘knowledge’. 

Alright. Again, no ‘K’ sound. 

We have ‘knowledge’. Now, ‘knowledge’ is all the things you know. 

If you have a lot of knowledge,  you're a very smart person. 

Alright. Stupid people, they have no knowledge. 

Okay. Or maybe you  

just don't know about a certain topic. It's like I have no knowledge about  

the Chinese language. That's a true thing. 

I don't know anything. All right. 

Next, we have ‘knight’. Now, this is not ‘night time’,  

like “Oh day is finished. It's night time.” Now, if there's a ‘K’ here, this is  

like the old style in England. Like King Arthur and his knights. 

And they wear the armor and fight  with swords. That sort of thing. 

That's what that night means. We also have this one here. 

‘knew’ Okay 

Now, ‘knew’ is just the past tense of ‘know’. It's okay, like “Many years ago, I knew someone  

named Paul.” Alright. 

That was in the past. I don't know him anymore but  

I knew him many years ago. All right. 

We also have ‘knee’. That's a, that one right there. 

Okay. It's like that middle part of your leg,  

where your leg bends. That's the ‘knee’. 

Again, not ‘k-nee'. Remember that. 

Now, ‘kneel’. Very similar to ‘knee’. 

Just plus an ‘L’. Now ‘kneel’. 

It's now sometimes people sit down on a chair, but then kneel just means to go down on your  

knees. Okay. 

Probably because you don't have a chair. So you have to kneel on the floor. 

Down on your knees. Okay. 

Another one, ‘knife’. Very simple. 

You have to cut something. ‘knife’ 

Okay. If you ever cook food or prepare food  

you might need a knife to cut your vegetables. So remember, not ‘K-nife’, just ‘knife’. 

After that, another example is ‘knit’. Okay. 

You know if you have a handmade scarf or maybe a  handmade sweater that means you knit the scarf. 

Okay. It's the old style - making a scarf. 

You knit the scarf - handmade style. Alright. 

Then there's ‘knob’. All right. 

Now ‘knob’ is on some doors. Some doors have a handle,  

but some doors have a knob. And this is you grab it and just turn it. 

It's almost like a ball shape. Grab the knob. Turn the knob. 

It's good thing. All right. 

Also for a door, you have ‘knock’. This is ‘knock knock’. 

Anybody home? Alright. 

You're going to visit your friend. Don't just open the door. 

Well maybe but it's polite - knock knock. Then someone will come and open the door for you. 

Okay. Then, we also have ‘knot’. 

Okay. Now, this isn't like, “I am NOT going home.” 

No. with a ‘k', ‘knot’ is kind of like  

when you tie something like your shoes. Okay. 

You take your shoe strings and you tie them into  a knot so that they don't fall down, fall apart. 

Okay. Tie your shoes in a knot. 

All right. And then down here we have ‘knuckle’. 

All right. ‘knuckle’ 

Kind of like how ‘knee’ is on your  leg, a ‘knuckle’ is on your finger. 

All right. Right there where your fingers bend. 

Those are my knuckles. All right. 

So as you can see here, there's many words. 

There's more than these, but  these are just 12 of these words, 

where it starts with ‘K’ but we can't say the ‘K’. Well can't? We just don't say the ‘K’ or…  

it's you're going to look silly.

I hope that helps you and I hope you can remember it. Thank you.