Questions tagged [silent-letters]
A silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation.
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What is the plural form of "zero"?
I tried looking on Google, but there are some fairly contradictory results.
I thought I'd ask you guys so we could get an authoritative answer on the subject!
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When should I use "a" versus "an" in front of a word beginning with the letter h?
A basic grammar rule is to use an instead of a before a vowel sound. Given that historic is not pronounced with a silent h, I use “a historic”. Is this correct? What about heroic? Should be “It was a ...
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Is it "falsy" or "falsey"?
I have seen both spellings of this word, falsy and falsey.
It can mean "something that is equivalent to false" in computer science, such as "The only two falsy values in the Ruby Language are false ...
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"Updatable" vs. "Updateable": which is correct?
Which spelling is correct, "updatable" or "updateable"?
For example, "The file is not updat(e)able."
By the way, I did go to Google and ref.dic.com for this first, and they both seem to indicate ...
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How is y’all’dn’t’ve pronounced
According to Wikipedia, y’all’dn’t’ve is a valid contraction.
I am having difficulty pronouncing the L-D-N-T-V consonant cluster, especially since there is no vowel at the end (silent E). Y’all’dn’t’...
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In the word "Scent", is the S or the C silent?
So I saw a post on a funny pictures site...
"In the word "Scent", is the S or the C silent?"
In particular, how does the pronunciation of "scent" differ from "cent" and "sent"?
Small audio ...
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Why is "cupboard" pronounced with a silent "p"?
According to Google at least, the word "cupboard" originated in late Middle English as denoting a board that held cups. Since then, the word has evolved to mean a kind of cabinet.
My question is, ...
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Is it "togglable" or "toggleable"?
The dialect is American English, but I'd be interested to know if this varies between dialects. Is it"togglable" or "toggleable"? Because neither dictionary.com, webster.com, nor Outlook's spelling ...
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What is the optional plural form of a word that ends in “‑y”?
I guess “optional plural” is the correct term. I’m referring to things like
It can be found at the following location(s).
Please pick up your ticket(s).
But how do I do that to a word that ends in&...
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Is "ageing" the only exception?
have, having
love, loving
make, making
take, taking
give, giving
hate, hating
strive, striving
Etc. When a verb in its lemmatic form ends with "-e" then its present participle omits that letter.
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Is there an etymological explanation for the silent ‘g’ in “paradigm”?
Whenever I come across the word paradigm, I have to make a small conscious effort not to pronounce the letter ‘g’.
In Italian, it is spelled paradigma and each letter is individually pronounced i.e. ...
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Parenthetical pluralization of words ending in '-y' [duplicate]
Sentences constructed with a word written in the singular and parenthetically in the plural are straightforward when that word does not end in -y, e.g.:
List all applicable employee(s).
How does ...
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Pronunciation of "cache"
I have been pronouncing the word "cache" as kaysh. I know a few people who pronounce it more like cash, cashay or even catch. After consulting a few dictionaries, it turns out that the correct ...
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Why is the 'w' silent in "sword"?
In RP English, the 'w' in "sword" is silent. Wiktionary suggests /sɔːd/ and /soʊrd/.
Why? Are there other words like this? The 'w' is pronounced in words like "swollen", "swoop", "sworn" and "swore".
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Silent "w" in words starting with "wr-"
My eldest is a beginning reader. Yesterday we read one of my favorite books, The Wreck of the Zephyr. He pointed at wreck and asked me why that one looked like it said "wuh-reck." I explained that ...
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"Pricey" vs. "Pricy"
I've recently encountered these two variations of the spellings for the informal word for "expensive." My dictionary and the online dictionary seem to indicate that both of these spellings are correct,...
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Is the proper spelling “judgment” or “judgement”?
I always thought the proper spelling was judgment, but I see judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.
But is the ...
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Why is the "a" in "cocoa" silent?
Not being a native speaker of English, one of those words that tripped me up is “cocoa”. Besides having its vowels inverted from “cacao”; it also is pronounced exactly the same as “coco”, whereas “...
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Is the ‘t’ in ‘witch’ considered a silent t?
I was under the impression that because ‘witch’ ends with a /tʃ/ sound, the ‘t’ is not silent but directly represents an essential element of the pronunciation.
However, a word game (the New York ...
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Why is the “L” silent when pronouncing “salmon”?
Why is the letter l silent when pronouncing salmon properly?
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Why does English spelling use silent letters?
Why have a letter in a word when it’s silent in pronunciation, like the b in debt?
Can anyone please clarify my uncertainty here?
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Is the D in words like Fridge and Bridge silent?
The other day, I was discussing the pronunciation of fridge with friends on a social media group. They insisted that the d in fridge is completely silent. Is that so? I have always said it with a ...
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Why do we spell the word “who” with a silent “w” when it isn’t needed?
If we spelled who without the W – making it ho like with do and to — it could still make sense, so why is there a silent W in the word who?
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Where did the "ue" in "tongue" come from?
How I remember being told over and over how to spell tongue! I didn't understand it then; I don't understand it now. What evolution might put a silent "ue" at the end of a word?
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Silent "e" at the end of words
Back in 2009, a job interviewer sent me a link to a web service that would help me make a free telephone call via the internet... Skype. As a native speaker, I knew "instinctively" to pronounce this "...
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Pronunciation of 'host' in Shakespeare's time
Listening to the recent film production of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, I noticed that Duncan says:
Give me your hand. Conduct me to mine host.
Obviously, it's in the text (Act 1, Scene 6). I'm ...
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How should "often" be pronounced? [closed]
I heard people saying "Of-fen" as well as "Of-ton".
Till now I have been using the first one but few days ago I had an interviewer who pronounced often "Of-Ton" while interviewing.
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What does the grave accent mark on words mean?
What exactly does the grave accent mean in English?
An example from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30:
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan
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Pterodactyl and Archeopteryx: Silent P vs Voiced P
These words share the Greek root πτέρυξ (pteryx), meaning feather/wing, but the P in pterodactyl is silent (in the initial position), while the P in archeopteryx (in the middle of the word) is voiced.
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Is there a good rule of thumb for plurals of words ending in "o"?
The following words and their plurals seem to be somewhat inconsistent:
combo / combos
concerto / concertos
grotto / grottos / grottoes (?)
hero / heros (?) / heroes
potato / potatos (?) / potatoes
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How do "you" pronounce eczema?
/ˈɛɡzɪmə/, /ˈɛksɪmə/, /ˈɛksmə/
As I no longer live in the UK I don't usually hear how eczema is pronounced, so I've always pronounced it as ig-zee-muh but recently my English boyfriend told me that ...
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Why doesn't "ninth" have an "e", like "ninety"?
Is it just because "ninth" has only one syllable? That wouldn't make sense, though, because saying "NINE-ith" wouldn't be worse than saying "NINE-e-tee". If we were used to "nineth", we would have ...
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When should a singular word ending in "y" end in "ies" plurally?
Words like "sky" and "money" have "ies" as a plural suffix (i.e. "skies" and "monies") but other words like "monkey" and "Emmy" do not ("monkeys" and "Emmys"). Is there a rule dictating the use of "...
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is letter “y” derived from “ij”?
It is my intuition, that the origin of the letter y comes from ij based on the usage in Dutch where it very closely resembles ij in both sound and shape. I would go so far as to say it looks like a ...
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Is it correct to put "bros" before "hos" or before "hoes"?
I'm wondering about the pluralisation of "ho" (as in slang for prostitute) in the phrase "Bros before ho(e)s". To me, hos makes sense because it's consistent with bros. Hoes could also refer to a ...
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Consonant transposition: Why is "Wednesday" pronounced "Wensday"?
It appears like a couple of consonant sounds have been transposed. How, why did that happen?
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Why doesn't the silent "e" work on "infinite"? [duplicate]
Why doesn't the silent "e" work on the word "infinite"?
What I mean is, why does mate have a long "a", but infinite has a short "i"?
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Last names that are English words with an extra 'e'
I noticed that there are a lot of last names that have an 'e' at the end. The pronunciation usually isn't changed from that of the base word.
Poole
Steele
Browne
Clarke
Why do English words not ...
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Why is "Thailand" spelled with an 'h'?
As we all know, "Thailand" is not pronounced with a /θ/ — so why is it spelled that way?
Is the 'h' vestigial? Does it represent some subtle phoneme in the Thai language, and if so, what is that ...
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How did the silent 't' come into all these 'tch' words?
I'm curious as to how so many words with the 'ch' sound have the silent 't' in them. Catch, itch, retch, hatchet, botch etc. The list is huge.
They all have different origins, and yet they have the ...
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When did Magdalen return to England?
From Mary of Magdala, the female disciple of Jesus Christ cited in the New Testament, we have the names Magdalen and Magdalene. Oxford Dictionaries includes the archaic definitions of magdalen, a ...
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Silent letters in English [closed]
With the help of dictionaries, I’ve assembled a list of letters that can be silent in English:
For most letters, I found more than one example, what are the other examples of a silent z (rendezvous)...
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Is there a term for the silent letters in a word?
Such letters are employed in spelling but are not pronounced, and English offers a wealth of examples more than any other language .
most final "b's" preceded by "m" (dumb, climb, thumb, etc)
most "k'...
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pronouncing "l" as a vowel
I am a native English speaker with a British accent.
When I say words like: lion, liver, below etc. - there is definite contact between my tongue and teeth/roof of the mouth.
When I say words like:
...
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What does the grapheme 'm̃' (m with a diacritical tilde) mean in English? Was it in use?
In a historical English book published in 1875, the grapheme 'm̃' (m with a diacritical tilde) is used in the title.
Ye parish of Cam̃erwell :
a brief account of the parish of Camberwell : its ...
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Confusing 'r' sounds
In their kids song "Crazy ABCs", the Barenaked Ladies sing about words that start with confusing sounds:
A is for aisle
B is for bdellium
C is for czar
However, when the song gets to "r":...
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Why isn't the ‘P’ in psychology pronounced? [duplicate]
Why is the initial letter of some of the words like pneumonia, and psychology not pronounced?
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Why is the plural form of piano "pianos" and not "pianoes"?
The rule says that if a singular noun ends in consonant + "o" then the plural form will be consonant + "oes".
e.g. tomato => tomatoes.
Then, why this rule does not apply to piano?
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Why is it "argument" instead of "arguement"?
Why would you replace the <e> in argue before affixing <-ment>?
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If a letter isn't pronounced but affects pronunciation of other letters, is it still 'silent'?
The 'e' in paste isn't pronounced on its own, but changes the pronunciation of the 'a'.
In that case, is the 'e' still referred to as silent?
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