Hadar Shemesh breaks down why English spelling doesn't match how words sound, focusing on silent letters in words like psychology, receipt, debt, and yacht. The episode walks through common patterns and recommends repeated oral practice to rewire your pronunciation habits, with a free PDF and audio for practice.
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Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 270. And today we're going to talk about silent letters. Hey everyone, it's Hadar. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode. Today I'm going to talk about the relationship between spelling and pronunciation because, you know, I've already talked about the fact that what you see is not what you hear and spelling of English does not correspond necessarily with the pronunciation of English. There are patterns that we can follow, but I don't like to teach those patterns because they are extremely inconsistent and hard to remember unless you have the time to sit and analyze and to think about it. But there are a few things that we definitely need to discuss when it comes to spelling versus pronunciation, and that is silent letters. Silent letters are letters in particular consonant letters that are simply not pronounced. And you know, there are the obvious ones like the K and knife. You know, you learn it first thing when you go to school. But there are the less common ones or obvious ones that could create potential confusion. So this is why I created this episode for you. And I actually have a freebie for you, a PDF with audio so you can actually practice it on your own. So not just listening to this episode and trying to figure out how to put it into practice, but actually to have the tools to practice it, listen to it, repeat it, and then that is how you're going to start making those changes if indeed you used to pronounce these words differently. So make sure you go to the description to download the freebie and audio and that's it. I hope you enjoy this episode.
Hey everyone, it's Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. Today we are going to talk about silent letters. I want to talk about silent letters that often cause mispronunciations. And here's the thing, here's why it's so confusing. Because English pronunciation and spelling are not aligned, right? So a lot of times you expect to say what you say see on the paper or on your computer screen and it's actually not the case. And because a lot of you have started learning English through reading and writing, the the representation of the written words is very, very dominant in your brain and you're thinking of the letters as sounds. So I'm going to share with you those examples and for you to be able to practice it, I don't want you to just watch this video and be like, oh, I didn't know that there is no B in debt. I actually want you to put it into practice so you can start making changes. Because changing your pronunciation is basically changing a habit. And to do that, you have to repeat something again and again and again. You have to repeat something again and again and again. So I created a PDF for you with the list of words and actually a few additional words and suggestions so that you can practice it after watching the video. But here's the thing. If you see a word that you know you use differently, you pronounce it differently, or you feel like you're not using it enough in your day to day speaking, I would recommend not just to look at it and say it once. I recommend to build pronunciation confidence. And for that you need to say it out loud like 10, 20, 30 times. And then always use it in context. Let's get started. The first letter that I want to talk about is the letter P. So here's a pattern that is pretty consistent. Whenever There is a P.S. at the beginning of a word, the P is not pronounced. So we don't say psychology. We say psychology. You just don't pronounce the P sound. Psychiatrist. Psychic. Can you hear it? Psychic, not psychic. Now, the P is also silent in the word receipt. The T is pronounced by the way it's held. This is why you not you're not fully hearing it. But I'm not saying receive, I'm saying receipt. There is a T, but there is no P. Receipt. And also in the word coo, there is no P, even though it's in the spelling coo. All right, good. The next silent letter is the B. Now here's another pattern to follow. When there is mb, especially at the end of words, the B is not pronounced. So in words like limb, clim, no B. Bomb, no B. Crumb, plumber, comb, there is no B whatsoever. But we also don't have a B sound in the words debt, even though there is a B. It's not debt. Doubt. Can you hear it? And subtle. Debt, Doubt, Subtle. And again, when you practice it, especially if you are used to saying these words with a B sound, say each word out loud at least 20 times until you build that new pronunciation habit. The next silent letter I'm going to talk about is the N. The N is silent in the words him, not him. Condemn. Closing my lips, ending with an M. Autumn. And government. I do not pronounce the N here. Now let's talk about the T. There are a lot of words with a silent T. For example, fasten. We don't say fasten. Okay? It's not a Mistake. If you pronounce the T, not a big deal. Everyone would understand you.
But.
But just so you know, the T is generally not pronounced in this word. Fasten, soften, moisten. It's not moisten. Moisten. And also in the words ballet. Right? Not ballet. In Hebrew, by the way, we say ballet. The T is pronounced but in English, ballet. So if you have this word in your language and you do pronounce the T in your language, the T sound. And so you are very likely to pronounce it in English as well, which, again, not a big deal. But just so you know, it is not pronounced. And we just put a long A as in day at the end. Ballet. Ballet. More words with silent T. Mortgage. We don't say mort. Gadge.
Right.
Mortgage. Also the word rapport. Rapport. You can also put a schwa at the beginning. Rapport. It's not rapport. Rapport. Then the word apostle. We do not pronounce the T there. Apostle. Not apostle. Apostle. And also the word buffet. In American English, the T is not pronounced buffet. And also the word depot. Home Depot, Office Depot, Depot. It's a high E. And then long O is in go. No T. Depot. The next silent letter we're going to discuss is an S. The S is silent in debris. Not debris. Debris. And also in the word bourgeois. Bourgeois. Now, by the way, in the PDF, I'm going to write the definition for all of these words. So if you are not sure about some of the words, then the definition is going to be in the free PDF that I created for you. So download it. So the L is not pronounced in words like yolk. The yellow part inside the egg. Yolk. Not yolk. Yolk. The L is also not pronounced in walk and talk. When there is an lk at the end of words. That is a common spelling pattern where the L is not pronounced. The L is also not pronounced in the word salmon. Now, I have a funny video about that that I'm going to link in the description below. Funny story that happened to my husband with the word salmon. So we do not pronounce the L in English. It's not salmon. Not that it's a big deal. Everyone would still mostly understand you. But make sure it's two syllables. Salman. Schwa at the end. Salmon. The C is silent in the word indictment. Indict. Not indict, but indict. And I know that because it's not a very common word. You don't hear it a lot when you come across. Makes sense that you'd assume that the C is pronounced, but it's not indict. The G is not pronounced in many words that represent a vowel, like thought and taught, but it's also not pronounced in the word phlegm. Now, I have a couple more words for you with silent letters. Actually, more than one silent letter. First word I want to talk about is the word yacht. And the spelling has nothing to do with the pronunciation. We do not pronounce the ch right. It's not yacht, but yacht. Just like a Y sound oz and father and a T yacht. And then also the word core. The PS at the end gone. Corps, Corps, Corps, like the Marine Corps core. What other words with silent letters that I have not mentioned in this video, do you know? Let me know in the comments below. Now, make sure you download the PDF and remember, it's not enough to just hear it once and just think about it. You gotta put it in your mouth. You gotta say it again and again and again. So you change your pronunciation habits, build new habits and get it into your system. All right, thank you so much for watching. I hope you found this video helpful. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next video.
