silent letters

Talk a Lot
Clear Alphabet Dictionary
Silent Letters
Here are some good examples of items in the dictionary which have silent letters. The Clear Alphabet ignores letters
which are not pronounced. Silent letters often occur because the vowel letters in unstressed syllables are converted
into schwa sounds when we pronounce them; or when double letters represent one consonant sound, e.g. “ff” for f ,
and so on. Note: reading this list out loud is a good way of testing students’ understanding of the use of the schwa
sound in English pronunciation:

Normal Spelling:

CA Spelling:

Silent Letter(s) (in spelling but not pronounced):

autumn
build
butter
candidate
cinema
criminal
customer
debt
differ
elephant
escalator
giraffe
gorilla
guess
illness
indicator

knee
manager
mechanic
menopause
minute
muscle
negative
Norwich
often
orchestra
possible
sausage
school
separation
skeleton
sledge
solicitor
suggest
supporter
syllable
terminal
thermometer
together
weather
what
whatever
whenever
wrist
wrong
young

Or tm
Bild
Bu t
Kan d dt
Si n m
Kri m nl
Ku st m
Det
Di f
E l fnt
E sk lei t
j Rarf
g Ri l
Ges
Il ns
In d kei t
Nee
Ma n j
m Ka nik
Me n porz
Mi nit
Mu sl
Ne g tiv
No rich
O fn
Or k str
Po s bl
So sij
Skool

se p Rei shn
Ske l tn
Slej
s Li s t
s Jest
s Por t
Si l bl
Ter m nl
tt Mo m t
t Ge th
We th
Wot
wo Te v
we Ne v
Rist
Rong
Yung

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Talk a Lot Clear Alphabet Dictionary

English Banana.com
162


Talk a Lot
Clear Alphabet Dictionary
Silent Letters
Answers:
Normal Spelling:

CA Spelling:

Silent Letter(s) (in spelling but not pronounced):

autumn
build
butter
candidate
cinema
criminal
customer
debt
differ

elephant
escalator
giraffe
gorilla
guess
illness
indicator
knee
manager
mechanic
menopause
minute
muscle
negative
Norwich
often
orchestra
possible
sausage
school
separation
skeleton
sledge
solicitor
suggest
supporter
syllable
terminal
thermometer
together

weather
what
whatever
whenever
wrist
wrong
young

Or tm
Bild
Bu t
Kan d dt
Si n m
Kri m nl
Ku st m
Det
Di f
E l fnt
E sk lei t
j Rarf
g Ri l
Ges
Il ns
In d kei t
Nee
Ma n j
m Ka nik
Me n porz
Mi nit
Mu sl

Ne g tiv
No rich
O fn
Or k str
Po s bl
So sij
Skool
se p Rei shn
Ske l tn
Slej
s Li s t
s Jest
s Por t
Si l bl
Ter m nl
tt Mo m t
t Ge th
We th
Wot
wo Te v
we Ne v
Rist
Rong
Yung

n
u
t, er
i, a, e
e, a

i, a
o, er
b
f, er
e, a
a, or
i, f, e
o, l, a
u, s
l, e, s
i, or
k
a, er
e, h
o, e
u, e
c, e
a, e
w
t, e
h, e, a
s, i, e
a, e
h
a, io
e, o
d, e
o, i, or
u, g
u, p, er

l, a, e
i, a
er, e, er
o, er
a, er
h
h, er
h, er
w
w
o

Talk a Lot Clear Alphabet Dictionary

English Banana.com
163