Hi, this is Laura Turner and today we're going to talk about how to pronounce silent letters when reading words in English. This seems as though it would be easy but sometimes you can find some things that are a little difficult to pronounce. But if you remember which letters are silent, usually in words you can pretty much pronounce any word. So what we're going to do today is I'm going to pronounce a few words for you. Silent letter b, if you have a word like crumb, for example, you will just pronounce the word as though the b is not even there. Also, with the word subtle, you notice you actually skip the b and go to the t, subtle. Silent letter c, like words like muscle, so you say m u s l e, in effect, when it's actually spelled m u s c l e. Silent letter d, everybody forgets this, Wednesday. So Wednesday actually has a d, but you of course pronounce it W e n e s d a y. Silent letter g, in words like gnaw, and sign. Silent letter gh, in words like tough. That's the one that's sort of a little different from the others because you actually combine the letters to make a different sound, a double f. Silent letter h, in words like heir and herb, although some people say herb. I think I've said herb before, but it is actually supposed to be a silent letter. And then words like silent letter k, for words like knife, knee and know. And that's how you pronounce some silent letters in English words.
