Julie Cunningham, speech-language pathologist and accent coach

Silent Letters in English

10/24/2026

By Julie Cunningham, MA, CCC-SLP, licensed speech-language pathologist

Short answer: a silent letter is a letter you see in a word but don't pronounce, like the K in knife, the B in thumb and the W in write. English has a lot of them, because its spelling stayed the same while its pronunciation changed. The good news is that most silent letters follow a few patterns, so once you know them, you can say new words correctly.

Below are the silent letters of English from B to W, with 83 example words, the words Americans say more than one way, and how to practice. Capital letters mark the stressed syllable.

Why Does English Have Silent Letters?

Many silent letters used to be pronounced. Hundreds of years ago, English speakers said the K in knight and the GH in night. Over time, those sounds dropped out of speech, but the spelling had already been fixed by printers and dictionaries, so the letters stayed.

Other silent letters were added on purpose. Scholars in the 1500s put a B in debt and doubt to match the Latin words they came from, and an S in island because they thought it was related to isle. It wasn't, but the S stuck. And English borrowed many words from French with their spelling, which is why the T is silent in ballet and the S is silent in debris.

Silent Letters in English, from B to W

These are the most common silent letters, with the pattern that tells you when to skip them.

Silent letter	When it's silent	Examples
B	after M at the end of a word, and before T	climb, comb, thumb, lamb, bomb, debt, doubt, subtle
C	after S, before E or I	scene, science, scissors, muscle
D	in a few common words	Wednesday, handsome, handkerchief
E	at the end of a word, where it changes the vowel before it	hope, time, cute, make
G	before N	sign, design, foreign, gnome
GH	before T, and at the end of some words	night, light, daughter, thought, though
H	at the start of some words, and after G or R	hour, honest, honor, heir, ghost, rhythm
K	before N at the start of a word	know, knee, knife, knock, knight
L	before K, F, D or M, in some words	walk, talk, folk, yolk, half, calf, could, should, would, salmon
N	after M at the end of a word	autumn, column, hymn, solemn
P	before S or N at the start of a word, and in a few others	psychology, pneumonia, receipt, cupboard, raspberry
S	in a few words	island, aisle, debris, Illinois
T	in -sten and -stle, in a few other words, and at the end of some French words	listen, fasten, castle, whistle, Christmas, mortgage, ballet
U	after G, and in a few others	guess, guest, guitar, guard, build, biscuit
W	before R, and in a few others	write, wrong, wrist, wrap, answer, sword, two, who

A few of these patterns cover hundreds of words. If a word starts with KN, WR or PS, the first letter is almost always silent. If it ends in MB or MN, the B or N is silent. And words that end in -sten or -stle, like listen and castle, almost never pronounce the T.

Words Americans Say More Than One Way

Some letters are silent for some Americans and pronounced by others. Both ways are correct:

often: most Americans say AH-fun, with a silent T, but many say AHF-tun.
calm and palm: some Americans say the L, and some don't.
February: many people drop the first R and say FEB-yoo-air-ee. FEB-roo-air-ee is correct too.
sandwich: the D is often silent in everyday speech, so it sounds like SAN-wich.
what, when and where: most Americans don't pronounce the H, so which and witch sound the same.

And remember: when an L is pronounced at the end of a word, as in feel and milk, it's a Dark L.

Silent Syllables

Sometimes a whole vowel disappears in everyday speech, so a word has fewer syllables than its spelling suggests. Comfortable is KUMF-ter-bul (3 syllables, not 4), vegetable is VEJ-tuh-bul, chocolate is CHAHK-lit, business is BIZ-nis, and family is often FAM-lee. The vowels that do stay in unstressed syllables usually shrink to a schwa. See more words like these in my guide to hard words to pronounce in English.

How to Say Words with Silent Letters

Learn the patterns, not just the words. KN, WR, MB, MN and -sten cover most silent letters you'll meet.
Listen before you say a new word. If you learned a word from reading, check how it sounds first. Most online dictionaries have an audio button.
Don't add the letter back to be safe. Saying the K in knife or the L in salmon doesn't sound more careful to an American listener. It just sounds unfamiliar.
Watch out for look-alike words. Silent letters hide in words like receipt, Wednesday and island, which are on my list of 40 commonly mispronounced words.
Train your ear. Take my free 2-minute American English listening quiz to find the sounds you mix up.
Follow a course. My free course, English Pro Lite, has 45 video lessons on vowels, consonants, stress and rhythm. In English Pro, I teach every sound and pattern step by step, and you can send me your recordings for feedback.

Start the free accent course

Common Questions

What is a silent letter?

A silent letter is a letter that appears in a word's spelling but isn't pronounced, like the K in knife, the B in thumb and the W in write.

What are some examples of words with silent letters?

Common examples are knife, know, write, wrong, thumb, climb, listen, castle, island, Wednesday, receipt, salmon, hour and autumn.

Why does English have silent letters?

Many silent letters were once pronounced, but the spelling stayed the same after the sounds dropped out of speech. Others were added by scholars to match Latin, like the B in debt, or came with words borrowed from French, like the T in ballet.

How do I know when a letter is silent?

Look for the common patterns: K before N (know), W before R (write), B after M (thumb), N after M (autumn) and T in -sten and -stle (listen, castle). For other words, listen to a dictionary's audio before you say them.