The Ginseng English Team 7/13/18 The Ginseng English Team 7/13/18

Silent T Words

Stop pronouncing these words wrong! If you’re looking for explanations and examples of words with silent T, you’ve come to the right place. Charts, definitions, a word list of over 20 examples, and the history of how silent T became silent.

Silent T words are tricky even for native speakers. It's not at all uncommon to hear native speakers pronounce the word often off-ten. There are a few simple patterns you can learn to make sure that you're keeping those silent Ts silent! Read on!

When Is T Silent?

The "rules" for silent T are these: if you see -STEN, -FTEN, or -STLE, you should assume that the T is silent.

A lot of other silent letters are silent at the beginning (like G and K) or end (like B and N) of words. Silent T is a little different. It usually becomes silent because it gets "sandwiched" between two other consonant sounds, and it's easier to say if you leave out that T, which requires a lot of effort.

Examples

The chart below contains a word list of over 20 examples of words with silent T. Are you pronouncing them all correctly?

Elided T in Connected Speech

It's also worth mentioning that there are a number of situations where, in connect speech, we elide (or delete) the T sound, even if that hasn't become the standard pronunciation. For example, if you look up the standard definition of the word mostly, it has a T sound: /ˈməʊstli/. However, in fast speech, we frequently leave out that T, much like we do in castle.

The same can happen when certain words come together. For example, in the phrase just saying, we frequently elide the T sound, and say jus-saying.

Notice that there are some clear patterns here. Many of the words are verbs with the -EN suffix. We use this suffix to turn an adjective into a verb. For example, soft is an adjective, and soften is a verb that means "to make something soft." Moist is an adjective, etc.

Is The T in watch Silent?

There are lots of lists of silent T words out there. On some, you'll find words ending with -TCH, like watch and match. This is a little inaccurate. For one thing, take a look at the phonetic transcription, and you'll see that there is actually a T sound in there: /wɒtʃ/ and /matʃ/. Of course, that T sound is just part of the CH sound, and also exists in words like attach: /əˈtatʃ/. But calling the T silent isn't really accurate. Unnecessary, maybe, but not silent. It's better to think of TCH as a variation of CH that is sometimes required at the end of certain words, much in the same way that we seldom end words with just a -K after a single vowel; it usually becomes -CK. And I hope we wouldn't call that a silent C!

If you enjoyed this, check out some of our other English posts!

By the way, make sure to check out our other posts on English pronunciation, including Silent K, Silent B, Silent G and Silent L, and Deleted Syllables.

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Silent T Words

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The Ginseng English Team 5/10/18 The Ginseng English Team 5/10/18

Silent E Words

English spelling is crazy but there are patterns. Silent E words follow a very common pattern. Check out this explanation with charts and over 200 of examples.

As we have established, English pronunciation is crazy, and silent letters can sometimes seem extra crazy. Silent E isn't quite as crazy as some other words. Silent N and silent B and silent K are a little useless in English.

But silent E is different. It's a very useful pattern to learn. Unlike some other letters, silent E tells us some very important information about the other vowels in the word.

C-V-C Words

Before reading on about silent E, we really recommend reviewing consonant-vowel-consonant (C-V-C) words. This article will give you a strong background for understanding how silent E works in English.

However, if you don't have time for that, the short version is this: In 3-letter words that are made of a consonant, then a vowel, then a consonant, the vowel is usually pronounced with a short vowel sound.

Silent E Words

Silent E words follow the C-V-C pattern, but with an E at the end, so they become C-V-C-E words. Adding the -E at the end changes the short vowel sound to a long vowel sound.

For example:

Hat /hæt/ has a short A sound, and hate /heɪt/ has a long A sound.
Bid /bɪd/ has a short I sound, and bide /baɪd/ has a long I sound.
Hop /hɑp/ has a short O sound, and hope /hoʊp/ has a long O sound.

Adding Suffixes to Silent E Words

So when we learned about C-V-C words, we learned that you must double the last consonant. For example, rap, becomes rapped in the simple past and rapping in the present continuous. When you see an unfamiliar word with a double consonant before the suffix -ed or -ing (maybe stropped or thrumming, for example), you can safely guess that the vowel sound is short and that the base form is a C-V-C word (that is, strop and thrum).

With silent E (or C-V-C-E words), we do not double that last consonant when adding a suffix, such as -ed or -ing (or -er or -est for adjectives). Compare these examples of C-V-C and C-V-C-E words to notice the pattern:

hope ➞ hoped and hoping (no E)

hop ➞ hopped and hopping (double P)

Here's another:

pine ➞ pined and pining (no e)

pin ➞ pinned and pinning (double N)

Complete list of Silent E Words

Here are over 200 examples of silent E words:

Silent E Words with Long A

babe, bade, bake, bale, bane, bare, cage, cake, came, cane, cape, care, case cave, dale, dame, dare, date, daze, face, fade, fate, fake, fame, fare, fate, faze, gale, gape, gate, gave, gaze, hare, hate, have, haze, jade, jane, kale, lace, lake, lame, lane, late, mace, made, mage, make, male, mane, mare, mate, maze, name, nape, nave, pace, page, pale, pane, pare, pate, race, rage, rake, rape, rare, rate, rave, raze, safe, sage, sale, same, sane, sate, save, take, tale, tame, tape, tase, tare, vale, vane, vape, vase, wade, wage, wake, wane, ware, wave

Silent E Words with Long E*

cede, here, lede, meme, mere, mete, we're, we've

*see note below.

Silent E Words with Long I

bide, bike, bile, bite, cite, dice, dike, dime, dine, dire, dive, fife, file, fine, fire, hide, hike, hire, hive, jibe, jive, kite, lice, life, like, lime, line, lite, live, mice, mike, mile, mime, mine, mire, mite, nice, nine, pike, pile, pine, rice, ride, rile, ripe, side, sire, site, tide, tile, time, tine, tire, vile, vine, vise, wide, wile, wine, wipe, wire, wise, wive

Silent E Words with Long O

bode, bone, bore, code, coke, cone, cope, core, cove, dole, dope, dote, doze, fore, hole, home, hone, hope, hose, joke, lobe, lode, lone, lore, mode, mole, mope, mote, node, nope, note, poke, pole, pope, pore, robe, rode, role, rope, rose, rote, rove, sole, toke, tore, tote, vote, woke, wore, wove

Silent E Words with Long U

cube, cuke, cure, cute, dude, duke, dune, dupe, fume, huge, june, lube, luge, lure, mule, muse, mute, nude, nuke, puke, pure, rube, rude, rule, sure, tube, yule

Exceptions and notes

-ORE words do not have a long O sound. Bore, core, fore, lore, more, tore, and wore rhyme with four.

You may notice that there are very few silent E words with a long E in the middle. This is because we have many other common ways to spell the long E, such as the -EA- in dear and meal and the -EE- in seen and feet.

More Free English Resources

Have you read our other posts on English pronunciation? If not, take a look at Silent K, Silent N, Silent G and Silent L, and Deleted Syllables.

Featured

July 13, 2018

Silent T Words

July 13, 2018

May 10, 2018

Silent E Words

May 10, 2018

March 1, 2018

The Only Letter in English that is Never Silent

March 1, 2018

February 13, 2018

Silent G Words

February 13, 2018

December 6, 2017

Silent L Words

December 6, 2017

The Ginseng English Team 3/1/18 The Ginseng English Team 3/1/18

The Only Letter in English that is Never Silent

We have talked a whole lot about silent letters in English here. Silent B can make you feel dumb. And that damn silent N is terrible! I don't even walk to talk about silent L, folks. Silent G makes me gnash my teeth! 😵

But, as a recent article in Reader's Digest points out, nearly every letter in the English language is silent sometimes. There is only one letter in the language that is never silent. Can you guess what it is?

The letter is V! There are various very valuable v-words, and that V is never silent!

If you're thinking, "Wait, but what about A!? What about X!?" you can check out Wikipedia's list of silent letters from A to Z. (You might notice that they do have something listed under V, but it's the name of a town in Scotland, which isn't exactly an English word in the way we generally think of things.)

More free English resources

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Silent T Words

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The Only Letter in English that is Never Silent

Silent G Words

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Rob Sheppard 6/10/17 Rob Sheppard 6/10/17

Silent N Words

If you’re looking for explanations and examples of words with silent N, you’ve come to the right place. Charts, definitions, word lists, and the history of how silent N became silent.

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about some words with a silent B at the end. There is a similar pattern that can be tricky for students.

These words end with the letters -MN, but you never pronounce that N. The last sound you hear is the /m/. Let's read a little more about -MN words!

Silent T Word List
Word	IPA	PoS	Definition
listen	/ˈlɪsən/	v.	to pay attention to sound
fasten	/ˈfæsən/	v.	to connect
hasten	/ˈheɪsən/	v.	to hurry
glisten	/ˈglɪsən/	v.	to shine with wetness
moisten	/ˈmɔɪsən/	v.	to make moist
christen	/ˈkrɪsən/	v.	to make Christian or give a name
chasten	/ˈtʃeɪsən/	v.	to moderate or restrict in behavior
soften	/ˈsɒfən/	v.	to make softer
often	/ˈɒfən/	adv.	frequently
whistle	/ˈwɪsəl/	v.	blow air through the lips to make sound
thistle	/ˈθɪsəl/	n.	a common prickly plant
castle	/ˈkæsəl/	n.	a large fortified medieval building
wrestle	/ˈrɛsəl/	v.	to fight using grappling
nestle	/ˈnɛsəl/	v.	lie comfortably within something
pestle	/ˈpɛsəl/	n.	heavy tool for crushing food in a mortar
gristle	/ˈɡrɪsəl/	n.	tough cartilage in meat
mortgage	/ˈmɔːrɡɪdʒ/	n.	a contract to borrow money for a house
rapport	/raˈpɔːr/	n.	a friendly relationship
gourmet	/ˈɡɔːrmeɪ/	adj.	of a refined taste in food
ballet	/ˈbæleɪ/	n.	an artistic dance form

Silent N Words
Word	IPA	PoS	Definition
damn	/dæm/	v.	to condemn to hell
condemn	/kənˈdɛm/	v.	to judge guilty
limn	/lɪm/	v.	to draw or describe
hymn	/hɪm/	n.	a religious song
column	/ˈkɒləm/	n.	a decorative pillar
solemn	/ˈsɒləm/	adj.	serious or earnest
autumn	/ˈɔːtəm/	n.	the season after summer

What do you notice about the pattern? Silent N is always at the end of a word. It is also always after the letter M. When you see -MN at the end of a word, you should assume that you only pronounce the MN. There aren't any common words beginning with silent N, unlike G, which can be silent at the beginning or end of a word.

Is -MN always silent?

You will sometimes see -MN- in the middle of words related to these silent N words.

Damnation is the noun form of damn, a hymnal is a book of hymns, and autumnal is the adjective form of autumn. In words like these, where the first letter after MN is a vowel, you usually pronounce the N. In autumnal, hymnal, and damnation, we pronounce the N.

But in some cases, the next sound after the MN is a consonant sound. For example, columns and solemnly. When the next sound after the MN is a consonant sound, we usually do not pronounce the N.

Why is N Silent Sometimes?

As The Independent nicely says it, "Silent Letters are the ghosts of pronunciations past." Older versions of these words had pronounced Ns.

Most of them come to English from Latin. For example autumn comes from the Latin autumnus and column comes from the Latin columna. In these words, the N was pronounced. If you try to say them, you'll see that pronouncing the N in autumnus is pretty easy. If you try to pronounce the N at the end of autumn, it's not so easy. This is because in autumnus, the N is followed by a vowel. It starts a new syllable.

When Latin words changed over a long time into English words, most of them lost their Latin suffixes, -a and -us and -ae and -i. When we dropped those last syllables, the MN became very difficult to pronounce, so we just stopped!

If you enjoyed this, check out some of our other English posts!

By the way, make sure to check out our other posts on English pronunciation, including Silent K, Silent B, Silent G and Silent L, and Deleted Syllables.

Featured

Silent T Words

Silent E Words

The Only Letter in English that is Never Silent

Silent G Words

Silent L Words

Rob Sheppard 6/1/17 Rob Sheppard 6/1/17

Silent B Words

If you’re looking for explanations and examples of words in English with silent B, you’ve come to the right place. Charts, definitions, word lists, and the history of how silent B became silent.

One of the most frustrating and interesting things about English is the crazy pronunciation. Silent letters can be particularly difficult. They are there. You can see them. But you don't hear them!

There are two situations in which B is silent. Silent B at the end of words is one common pattern. If you see -MB at the end of a word, usually you do not pronounce the B. The other common silent B pattern is -BT.

Examples of Silent B Words

Here is a word list with 17 examples of silent B words:

  
    Silent B Word List
  
    Word
    IPA
    PoS
    Definition
  
    bomb
    /bɒm/
    n.
    a machine that explodes
  
    comb
    /kəʊm/
    n.
    a device for making hair neat
  
    dumb
    /dʌm/
    adj.
    not smart
  
    lamb
    /læm/
    n.
    a young sheep
  
    climb
    /klaɪm/
    v.
    to go up
  
    tomb
    /tuːm/
    n.
    a building for dead bodies

    thumb
    /θʌm/
    n.
    finger on the side of the hand
  
    crumb
    /krʌm/
    n.
    a small piece of food

    limb
    /lɪm/
    n.
    an arm or leg
  
    numb
    /nʌm/
    adj.
    not feeling
  
    plumber
    /ˈplʌmər/
    n.
    someone who fixed pipes
  
    womb
    /wuːm/
    n.
    the uterus
  
    debt
    /dɛt/
    n.
    owing money
  
    doubt
    /daʊt/
    n.
    uncertainty
  
    subtle
    /ˈsʌtəl/
    adj.
    delicate; not obvious
  
    jamb
    /dʒam/
    n.
    the side of a doorway

Notice that the silent B doesn't tell us anything about the vowel in the word. The vowel sounds can be very different, for example in bomb, comb, and tomb.

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Why is B Silent Sometimes?

In the past, the B in these words was not silent. Over time, pronunciation changes. For example, bomb comes from the Italian bomba, in which the second B is pronounced, and climb was climban in Old English. By about 1300 C.E., the B had become silent.