English Pronunciation 47: silent letters 1

Transcript: Hi everybody! This is the first of three videos I am making to help you to practise the British English pronunciation of words that contain silent letters. English contains many examples of silent letters, because the spelling and pronunciation of English evolved over time and with different influences, such as Latin, Greek and French. For example, the verb “write” is a commonly used word that contains a silent letter at the start. The “w” is silent so the word is pronounced “write”. The letter “b” is often silent after an “m” at the end of a word, or before a “t”. Repeat the following words after me: limb, limb For example, “You have to be careful of your limbs when skiing.” crumb, crumb For example, “I dropped a crumb on the floor.” dumb, dumb For example, “English spelling is really dumb.” comb, comb For example, “When I went travelling, I forgot my comb.” climb, climb “My friend likes to climb trees.” doubt, doubt “I doubt that it will rain today.” subtle, subtle “The descriptions in this article are very subtle.” The letter “c” is usually silent after a letter “s”. muscle, muscle “He has big muscles.” scissors, scissors For example, “I need some big scissors to cut this piece of paper.” miscellaneous, miscellaneous “This video contains some miscellaneous words to help you to learn the pronunciation of silent letters in English.” fascinate, fascinate For example, “Foreign languages fascinate me.” scenario, scenario For example, “It was a difficult scenario.” The letter “d” is silent in the following common words: Wednesday, Wednesday For example, “On Wednesday evening, I will meet my friends.” sandwich, sandwich For example, “I need to buy a sandwich to eat for lunch.” handsome, handsome “He is handsome”. The letter “d” is also silent before a letter “g”. pledge, pledge “He pledged to give a lot of money to charity.” hedge, hedge For example, “There is a tall hedge next to my garden.” The letter “e” is often silent at the end of words, but it also makes the vowel before it longer. hope, hope “I hope you can come to visit.” drive, drive “I drive to work.” gave, gave “She gave me a present.” write, write “I will write a letter to you.” site, site “There were ancient Roman buildings on this site.” hide, hide For example, “I will hide and you can look for me.” Great, listen again to this video and repeat the words after me to practise the British English pronunciation. Listen with subtitles by pressing on the ‘captions’ button below if you would like to also read the words as I say them. I will cover more silent letters in my next video – subscribe to my channel for more videos to help you practise speaking English with a British accent! Goodbye.