B. Most silent b's come at the ends of words and just after m: bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, numb, plumb, thumb, tomb.
What is the origin of the silent 'b' at the end of English words such as lamb, comb, crumb and bomb? WE OWE the silent 'b' to the fact that centuries ago our ancestors pronounced a b-sound: climb was Old English climban, and bomb comes from Italian bomba. The b-sound was lost by about 1300.
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.
But as Merriam-Webster Dictionary points out, one unusual letter is never silent: the letter V. While it makes an appearance in words like quiver and vivid, you can rest assured it always behaves the exact same way.
Silent letters are letters that don't correlate with any sound when a particular word is spoken. There are silent vowels and silent consonants. Silent letters can help differentiate homophones (words that sound the same but have different spellings). Some silent letters give insight into the origin of a word.
k is always silent in the word-initial spelling sequence kn: kneel, knee, knob, knight, knave, knowledge, knife, knock," (Sadanand et al.
In the word 'sandwich', if you looked that up in the dictionary, you WOULD see the D sound. But it's actually never pronounced that way. So Wednesday, Handsome: the dictionary says no D.
There is a silent "d" in the word "Wednesday" .
Silent “L” Patterns
If an “L” is found towards the end of the word, before the letters “f,” “v”, “k” and “m,” but after the letter “a,” then it's usually silent (behalf, calve, walk, almond).
That depends on whether the word is related to one whose spelling ends in -mb. If it is, then the b is not pronounced: so you won't hear it in bomber, lambing, climbing, dumbest, etc. If there is no such related word, then the b is pronounced, so timber, lumber, clamber, amber, etc., are pronounced the way they look!
B. Most silent b's come at the ends of words and just after m: bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, numb, plumb, thumb, tomb.
B is silent when the word ends with mb and when the word ends with bt. For example, doubt, subtle debt, etc.
It descended from Februarius, a month in the ancient Roman calendar. The name actually comes from the festival of februum, a purification ritual celebrated during the month.
Finally, you'll every now and then find a silent p in the middle of a word, such as 'receipt'. In English we say 're-seet', with no 'p' sounding in the second syllable, though some would argue that the p is there to slightly soften the sound.
Silent C: The letter C is silent when it is in the letter combination of SC. Examples: scissors, ascent, fascinate, muscle. The letter C is also silent before the letters K and Q.
As mentioned earlier, the letter H in Italian is silent and is used to modify the sounds of C and G. Specifically, when the letter H is inserted between C or G and E or I, it renders a harder sound. The most notable example of this for non-Italian speakers, perhaps, is spaghetti.
"O" (tor) is the silent letter in the word "doctor". The word "Doctor" has two syllables where doc / tor, "doc" is a stressed syllable and "tor" is pronounced as "ter" O in the 2nd syllable is unstressed and toneless.
Silent C words
There are many examples of this, such as science, scissors, scent, ascent, crescent, descent, descend, disciple, scene, obscene, fluorescent, abscess, fascinate, and muscle. The silent C also shows up in a few other weird words such as czar, acquire, indict, and yacht.
Silent H. H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT.