In the word "tongue," the letters U and G are effectively silent, forming a single sound with the 'n' (the 'ng' sound), while the final 'e' is also silent as it's a common English spelling convention (silent 'e') that doesn't change the vowel sound or add a sound at the end, making it a trick question with multiple silent components.
𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 '𝗴' 𝗶𝗻 '𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗲' Struggling with tongue pronunciation? Learn why the 'g' is silent and how to correctly pronounce the vowel sound to speak English more clearly....
The silent letter is the "C." The 2 letters together is called a digraph where the letters have/make one sound. It would be the C, although it may be following rules from other languages about which vowel it precedes - scent, scant, scintillating, scorn,scum.
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.
Zed is widely known to be used in British English. But it's also used in almost every English-speaking country. In England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada (usually), and New Zealand, Z is pronounced as zed. It's derived from the Greek letter zeta.
Regional differences in L pronunciation
If you're from Britain, you probably don't pronounce the L in “calm” or “palm.” But if you're American or Canadian, you might find yourself emphasizing that L sound.
'Marijuana' is the only English word in which the 'j' is silent.
Adjective. (nonstandard, humorous) Alternative spelling of dumb.
Evolution from Visigoth Z to modern Ç. In many languages, ⟨ç⟩ represents the "soft" sound /s/ where a ⟨c⟩ would normally represent the "hard" sound /k/.
Silent C words
When it comes to the letter C, it seems to remain silent when it follows the letter S. There are many examples of this, such as science, scissors, scent, ascent, crescent, descent, descend, disciple, scene, obscene, fluorescent, abscess, fascinate, and muscle.
You just have to memorize the words with a silent h. Words beginning with a silent h typically come from French, where h is almost always silent, like honest and hour.
Twenty tricky English words often trip people up due to spelling, pronunciation, or meaning, including Accommodate, Aisle, Buoy, Choir, Colonel, Embarrassed, Garrulous, Heard, Irregardless, Literally, Necessary, Nauseous, Nonplussed, Occasion, Phenomenon, Rhythm, Separate, Silhouette, Stationary, There, To, Were, Whom, You (common sight words), and words with tricky homophones like Affect/Effect or Compliment/Complement. These words challenge spelling (e.g., necessary), pronunciation (e.g., colonel, choir), or usage (e.g., imply/infer, literally).
Even unusual letters like Z and J are silent in words that we have adopted from foreign languages, such as marijuana (originally a Spanish word) and laissez-faire (French). But one unusual letter is never silent: the letter V.
The letter F doesn't often stay silent in English, but one notable exception is the word “fifth.” Depending on pronunciation, some people drop the second F, saying “fith” instead of fully pronouncing both F's. This is one of the rare instances of a silent F in the English language.
Budge, cute, date, fine, give, hike, large, late, line, shave, time, and rose. What do all of these words have in common? They all end with a silent 'e', an 'e' at the end of the word that's not pronounced.
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.
For example, the K is silent in the words “knife”, “knight”, “knob”, “knock”, “knit”, “knuckle”, “knee”, “kneel”, “knick-knack”, “knowledge”, “know”, “knot”, and “knoll” #phonics #jollyphonics #silentletters #silentlettersinenglish #spellingrules #phonicsforkids #teachertraining.
Silent “L” Words
knife, knight, gnaw
The basic rule is: “word + time = change.” The initial kn or gn sounds in words like knife, knight, and gnaw were pronounced several hundred years ago. Over time, the sound clusters have simplified into the single /n/ sound that we know (ahem) today.
Longman Dictionary and Oxford New American Dictionary give two standard pronunciations with the omitted L being most common and the pronounced L being less common but also standard.