The letters that are spelled but never spoken
know - write - hour - listen - climb
How to use this sheet
Many common English words keep a letter that stopped being pronounced centuries ago. These letters are not scattered at random: they cluster into a small number of patterns, so once you know the pattern you can predict dozens of other words. The spelling never changes to match the sound, so the letter still has to be written. The only real fix is to hear each word correctly and store that sound next to the spelling.
| Word | Silent letter | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|
| know | k | no |
| write | w | rite |
| hour | h | our |
| honest | h | on-ist |
| listen | t | liss-en |
| castle | t | cah-sel |
| climb | b | clime |
| doubt | b | dout |
| half | l | hahf |
| island | s | eye-land |
| Wednesday | d | wenz-day |
| receipt | p | ri-seet |
In use
I know the answer, but I can't write it very well. We waited an hour outside the castle. Please keep the receipt - the shop closes at half past five on Wednesday.
Watch out
I don't now what to do, so please rite it down for me.
The letter is silent, but it is not optional: it still has to be written, and leaving it out is a spelling mistake even though it matches exactly what you hear. Three rows need extra care. Rows three and four both begin with a vowel sound, so each takes the form of the indefinite article used before vowels, not the other one. Row eleven loses a whole beat as well as a letter, so it is said in two syllables and not three. Everything else is safe once you have heard it: say the word aloud from the third column, and write it from the first.