Silent Letters in English A to Z with ALL RULES | British Accents and Pronunciation

everyone and welcome back to english with lucy so you might have noticed that recently i've been doing a series on things you should never do in english or things you should never say and you guys seem to be reacting really well to it and really enjoying it so i'm back today with another video this time about letters that you should never ever pronounce in british english yes so today we're going to be talking about silent letters in British English words I'm going to run through the letters alphabetically it's going to be really easy for you to understand really easy for you to remember and revise a later date before we start the lesson I would just like to remind you of a fantastic opportunity from the sponsor of today's video which will help you boost your English level even further it's the lingo dirt language marathon the marathon is an opportunity to take one group class every day for three months and get all of your money back if you've not heard of lingotto before it's an online language academy which offers really high quality group and private classes with qualified native teachers if the full marathon seems like too much for you you can also take the half marathon where you take 15 classes per month for three months and get 50% of your money back in order to succeed and get your money back you have to participate in an agreed number of classes each month that's thirty for the full marathon and 15 for the half marathon the languages available are English Spanish French German and business English and for that last one you will need a level b1 or above in English as it's focused on special skills like giving presentations and job interviews the marathon runs from the 21st of January 2019 to the 20th of April you have until the 14th of January to register but hurry because places are limited so you need to pay for three months but don't forget if you complete the marathon successfully you'll get your money back if you'd like to know more about the marathon head to my announcement video where I've covered all of the details or you can just head straight to the registration link in the description the link go to charges five euro entry fee but you can get a four euro 50 discount and only pay 50 cents if you use my code study 1 not only will your language skills skyrocket but you'll also get up to 800 euros back into your account I think that is a really great motivation to commit to those 3 months and achieve your language goals for more information click on the link in the description box and if you do decide to sign up use my code study 1 for that discount right let's get on with the lesson so as you know English is not a phonetic language which means although you might see a letter in a word it doesn't necessarily mean you have to pronounce it I'm here to help you with that so let's talk about the letters that you should never pronounce in English the silent letters in English words I'm going to go through them from a to Zed giving you as many examples as I can possibly fit into this video I really do advise that you make a note of these and try to use as many as possible throughout your daily life that way it really gets stuck into your head ok so when should you not pronounce the letter a well when it comes just before lly at the end of a word look at the word on-screen how many syllables should this word have how many syllables if you thought 3 you're correct it should be logically we don't say logically it's just logically some other examples are artistically romantically musically it might be a good time now to mention the homework for today's lesson which is to add any extra words you can think of in your a to Zed list and please share them in the comments let's see who can contribute the most words I'll be looking out for them right let's move on to B so the B in words is usually silent when it comes before a T or after an M let's look at before a T we have subtle subtle no be there we also have debt debt and what about after an M we have comb comb woom woom toom toom bum bum plumber plumber some thumb now there are exceptions to these rules for example the word obtain it comes before a t yet you pronounce the T or remember remember so next we have C the letter C is usually silent when it comes after an S and before I II or Y for example scissors or science another miscellaneous one is muscle muscle and yacht yacht so there is one rule for the letter D it's normally silent if it comes before an N or a G for example Wednesday Pledge grudge other common words include sandwich handsome now silent e's form a big part of the English language in lower school or primary school we used to call them magic ease because by putting in E at the end of a word the vowel before it normally becomes a longer vowel sound for example mat changes to mate or strip changes to stripe other examples include face hate cute tube what about the letter G the letter G is normally not pronounced if it comes before and n for example a line a line foreign foreign there are exceptions to this rule like magnet or signature G is also not pronounced if it comes after a vowel and before an H for example high light through please do note though that gh is pronounced separately in compound words like doghouse that's two words put together or foghorn another fog horn two words put together sometimes gh is pronounced like an F for example laughs draft tough right let's talk about H on its own it's normally silent when it appears after a w for example why what when however sometimes it's not silent especially if an O follows it who who ever wholesome H is also silent at the beginning of many other words like our honest honor remember with an unvoiced H you have to use the article and an hour an honest man in general most words beginning with H are voiced and you should use the article a happy dog a hare let's move on to K the letter K is almost always silent when it comes before an N at the beginning of a word for example night night knife knife knowledge knowledge what about the letter L the letter L is not usually pronounced if it comes after a o or you for example calf calf should-should yoke yoke what about the letter n the letter n is usually silent if it comes after an M at the end of a word for example autumn autumn column column damn damn ah the letter P this one has got a bit more meat to it the P is usually silent in the letter combinations PS PT and P n used at the beginning of words for example psychology psychology pterodactyl pterodactyl I've always wanted to get a dinosaur into one of my videos and I have done it I did not know my new year's resolution would be so easy to achieve pneumonia pneumonia now P and H together is sometimes pronounced like F elephant elephant telephone telephone the letter S the letter S is not pronounced before L in the following words Island Island that's a really common mistake I hear I hear is 'land Iceland same for Isle Isle now key is a silent letter it's quite hard to come up with a definitive rule but commonly anything ending in ste n it's likely to have a silent T for example listen listen moisten moisten and also STL e whistle whistle castle castle other notable words are words derived from French like ballet ballet beret beret and other random ones like often often although you will hear that pronounced as often often in fact I was brought up to say often right we're getting close to the end now what about the letter U the letter U is usually silent if it comes after a G at the beginning of a word for example guess guess or gade gade and moving on to the letter W the letter W is usually not pronounced if it comes before are at the beginning of a word for example wrong wrong rap rap right right it is silent however if it's followed by an H and an O at the beginning of a word like who whom whoever whoever whole whole and then there are other random words like - - and sword sword the letter X the only word I can think of is at the end of a word derived from French fo so it's a commonly used word in English and the letters ed another French word rendezvous rendezvous we don't pronounce these ed there right that's the end of today's lesson please do complete the homework I would like to see as many more examples of silent letters in English words as possible in the comment section I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for you don't forget to check out the lingo - language marathon I've got the link to my full announcement video and also the sign up link and discount code in the description box don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media I've got my Facebook I've got my Instagram and I've got my Twitter and I shall see you soon for another lesson nah these lingo de rebellion go to language if you've not heard of lingo de before it's an online language academy the academy language gave me an order to succeed and gain your refund you need to take part in a good umbrella a blablabla in order to six not only will you am not only will your language skills skyrocket but you'll also get out further [Music] [Music]

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 758,438

Keywords: silent letters, silent letters in english, a-z silent letters

Id: ADCHItBNIFM

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2019