Silent Letters | English Pronunciation & Vocabulary | PART 1

Oh my gosh guys! How annoying are silent

天啊，各位

英文單字裡不發音的字母真惱人

letters in English words? What are they

它們的存在有何意義？！

even doing there?!

This video is all about English words

本影片就是要來談談

with silent letters in them. When do you

那些含有不發音字母的英文單字

pronounce those letters and when don't

那些字母何時要發音

you pronounce those letters? I'm going to

何時不發音？

我來教你幾個簡單的法則

teach you a few simple rules to help you

幫助你英文單字正確發音

pronounce English words correctly.

Don't forget to turn on the subtitles

也別忘了打開字幕

either. The button is just down there, so

按鈕就在這下方

這樣你就能完全明白

you can follow along. There are a lot of

英文有很多字帶有不發音字母

English words that have silent letters

in them. And there are lots of silent

而且英文裡有很多不發音字母

letters in English! About sixty percent

約百分之六十的英文單字都帶有不發音字母！

of all English words have a silent

約百分之六十的英文單字都帶有不發音字母！

letter! No wonder pronunciation is so

難怪學發音這麼讓人感到挫敗，對不對？

frustrating, right? And they can be silent

這些字母有時候不發音

these letters, but they're not always

有時候卻又發音

silent! So you have to be careful!

所以你得注意了！

You need to know a few basic rules to

你需要知道幾個基本法則

help with the pronunciation of silent

以了解如何應付英文單字裡的不發音字母

letters in English words.

以了解如何應付英文單字裡的不發音字母

Okay, let's start at the top with the

好，我們首先從字母a開始

letter A. Now the letter A can be silent

字母a有時不發音

especially in words that end in '-ally'.

尤其單字是-ally結尾的情況

Like these:

例如這些

So, I'm not pronouncing:

我並沒這樣發音：

Cut the A out. Get rid of it!

刪去a，消掉它

Now there's a rule

而關於字母b

to remember with the letter B. It's

記住一個法則：

always silent when it follows the letter M

它緊接在字母m後時不發音

So, practice them with me. I'm not

跟我一起練習

我沒發出b的音

pronouncing the B, I'm just pronouncing

我只發出子音m

the M consonant sound.

And the letter B is

而當字母b位於子音t之前時，時常不發音

often silent when it before the

而當字母b位於子音t之前時，時常不發音

consonant T, so think of these examples:

你可以想著這幾個例子：

So, see in all of

在這幾個例子中，

those examples, my lips are closing and

我的嘴唇並沒有閉合來發b的音

coming together to form the B sound,

我的嘴唇並沒有閉合來發b的音

I'm just pronouncing the T.

我只發t的音

Now, the letter C can cause a

字母c可能會導致一些問題

few problems because it's often silent

因為當它出現在字母s之後時常不發音

after the letter S, like in

像這幾個常見的例子

these very common examples - they are quite tricky!

它們相當難搞

So that's the silent C.

以上是不發音的C

So what about the letter D? Yep, it can be

那字母d又如何？

沒錯！d也可能不發音

silent too!

So, I'm not pronouncing the D in 'sandwich'

sandwich裡的d我沒有發音

I'm just pronouncing the consonant N

我只發它前面的子音n

sound before it. Try it with me one more time.

跟我再試一次

And a D can be very quiet, not quite silent, but

另外，若d位於g之前，

並非完全靜音，但發音很輕很輕

very quiet in front of a G, like in these

像這幾個例子：

examples:

So in these examples the D and the G

在這幾個例子中

d和g組合起來發子音/dʒ/

combined together produce the 'dg'

consonant sound 'dg'

d和g組合起來發子音/dʒ/

Okay, so the letter E can often be silent

字母e位於單字字尾時常不發音

at the end of a word. I'm pretty sure

字母e位於單字字尾時常不發音

you know this one already, like these

相信這你早就知道了

像這幾個例子：

examples:

But that E on the end, although it might be silent,

但即便位於字尾的e本身不發音

it can affect the pronunciation of the

卻有可能影響它前面的母音的發音

vowel sound before it.

卻有可能影響它前面的母音的發音

Let's look at these examples:

我們來看看這幾個例子：

So see how the E at the end, although it's not

注意到即便e本身不發音，

pronounced, is affecting the vowel sound

卻會影響它前面的母音

before it. It makes it longer. So hid /i/

使該母音變長音

所以

becomes hide /i:/

就變成

But if the E is the final letter in

但若e是該單字最後一個字母，

the word but it's the only vowel sound

而且是唯一的母音

then it needs to be pronounced, like in

那麼它勢必發音

像這幾個例子：

these examples

規則動詞過去式字尾都是-ed對吧

E can also be silent at the end of past tense regular

verbs, which all end in ED, right?

此時e也可能不發音

But they're not always pronounced like it is

並非永遠都像在wanted中那樣發音

in 'wanted'. So, you can hear the ED sound

那樣會聽到ed發/ɪd/的音

there '-ed', '-ed'. It's its own syllable.

有它自己的音節

But a lot of the time that E isn't pronounced

而很多時候那個e不發音

Now they could be a little bit tricky, so

可能有點棘手

let's do it again!

我們再來一次

Okay, so a G can also be silent too! Think

g也可能不發音

想想這些字：

about the word sign, champagne, design, or

foreign. All of these examples have a

這些例子全都有個不發音的g

silent G. And the combination GH can also

而gh這個組合在母音後面時也可能不發音

be silent when it comes after a vowel sound

而gh這個組合在母音後面時也可能不發音

Now, the letter H

字母h也時常不發音

is often silent too, often when it's

當它接在w之後時，就常不發音

following a W, like in the examples

例如：

有時候在一個字的開頭，

And sometimes it's not pronounced at the

start of a word like honest and hour.

h也不發音，例如：

And sometimes the H is not pronounced

而當h接在c，g或r之一的後面時

when it follows any of these three

而當h接在c，g或r之一的後面時

letters: C, G or R.

h有時候也不發音

Now, most of the time

大多情況下

CH is pronounced 'ch' but on small occasions

ch發/tʃ/，但偶有情況是不發音的

or rare occasions

特殊情況

it's not pronounce, the H is silent.

h就不發音

所以是：

跟g一起時：

跟r一起時：

Good news!

好消息！

The I is not usually silent, it's usually

字母i通常會發音

pronounced. Except in the word business!

除非是business這個字

Okay, K! Now I know you know this one!

我知道這個你會

A K is not pronounced when it comes before an N.

k在n前面時不發音

舉例：

The letter L can be silent too and it's

字母l也可能不發音

而且還滿常發生的，你看這清單

quite common when you look at this list.

But consider this rule to be a bit of a

不過此法則應被視為有點取巧

cheat because the letter L is quite

因為在所有這些單字當中

difficult to pronounce in all of these

字母l的發音還挺難的

words, even for a native speaker!

甚至對母語人士而言也一樣

So, this makes it easier! In these

所以乾脆省事一點

words where /l/ is really difficult to

在這些l很難發音的字當中

pronounce then it's silent! Ready? Let's try it.

l就不要發音

預備備～我們來試試

So, we got through quite a bit but

好，我們探討了不少

we're only halfway through! So, if you

但至此只涵蓋了一半

want to keep watching and keep

所以若你要繼續觀看影片

practicing with silent letters in

並學習英語中不發音的字母

English then click the link in the

那麼就點下方影片說明裡的連結

description box and go to part 2 of this video.

前往本影片的第二部分

Guys, I love making these videos

各位，我樂於為你們製作這些影片

for you and I love hearing from you as

也很歡迎各位的回應

well, so if you want to say hi

所以若你們想打個招呼

come over to my facebook page at

來mmmEnglish的FB頁面

mmmEnglish and say hello, ask question,

打聲招呼，提問，自我介紹

introduce yourself!

打聲招呼，提問，自我介紹

I'd love to hear from you there. Make sure

我會很高興在那讀到回應

you check out part 2 - the links down

記得去看看第二部分，連結就在下方

there! See you soon!

我們很快再會！