Silent letters

Note: this is an alternative for the interactive exercise with the same name in the FutureLearn course English Pronunciation in a Global World, which is preferred but requires javascript.

In English, letters that occur in the spelling of a word may not be pronounced, either for historical reasons (in the history of English, the letter was pronounced) or because the word has been borrowed from a language. In this exercise you have to determine for the words below which letter of the word is not pronounced. Try this first without listening to the word. The correct answers are given below the list of words. When you have finished the exercise, listen to all the words and repeat them yourself.

Answers

bomb: the final 'b' is not pronounced.
'b' is not pronounced in 'mb' clusters. Other examples are lamb, womb, plumber.

doubt: the letter 'b' is not pronounced.
'b' is not pronounced in 'bt' clusters. Other examples are debt and subtle.
> Note that historically, in Old English, there was actually no 'b' in words like debt at all. 'b' was only added later on the model of Latin and French.

yacht: 'ch' is not pronounced.

indict: the letter 'c' is not pronounced.
This word is pronounced /ɪndaɪt/. Note also that Leicester is pronounced /lestə(r)/. Nobody seems to know why! (And Worcester from Worcester Sause /wʊ(r)stə(r)/).

muscle: the letter 'c' is not pronounced.
‘c’ in ‘sc’ is also not pronounced in science, scissors.

come: the letter 'e' is not pronounced.
Many words have a final silent ‘e’. ‘e’ used to be pronounced in the history of English so that words with final -e had two syllables. Further, -e signalled that the preceding vowel was long; cf. rid-ride (/rɪd/-/raɪd/, previously /riː.də/.

coming: the final consonant cluster ‘ng’ is pronounced as one consonant: /ŋ/. The historical pronunciation, /n/ may still be heard. This pronunciation goes back to the original form of the present participle, which was ‘-ende’. Some dialects pronounce /ng/.

foreign: the letter 'g' is not pronounced.
‘g’ is silent in the consonant clusters ‘gn’ and ‘gm’: reign /reɪn/, sign, gnome /nɘʊm/, paradigm /pærədaɪm/.

honest: the letter 'h' is not pronounced.
‘h’ is not pronounced in many words that have been borrowed from French (cf. French h-dropping); for example, hour. (Note also: exhausting /ɪgzɔːtɪŋ/)

marriage: the letter 'a' is not pronounced.
/mærɪdʒ/. Also no ‘a’ is pronounced in carriage.

knight: the letter 'k' is not pronounced.
Word-initial ‘k’ is frequently not pronounced. Other examples are: know(ledge) /nɒlɪdʒ/, /nɑlɪdʒ/ in AmE, knackered, knee. This 'k' is Germanic and still pronounced in the Dutch equivalent of for example knee: knie /kniː/.
Note: 'gh' ('knight') is not pronounced either (as in right, sight) (while in enough, rough, 'gh' is pronounced as /f/).

half: the letter 'l' is not pronounced.
‘l’ is not pronounced in the clusters -alf (calf, on behalf), -alm (calm, salmon), and -alk (walk, talk, chalk). Neither is ‘l’ pronounced in the modal verbs could, should and would.

column: the letter 'n' is not pronounced.
There is also a silent ‘n’ in autumn, damn.

receipt: the letter 'p' is not pronounced.
Silent ‘p’ is frequently found in consonant clusters at the beginning of (Greek) words such as psychology, pseudo, psyche, psalm, pneumonia as well as in cupboard and raspberry.  /ps/ clusters are not native to English.

isle: the letter 's' is not pronounced.
There is no ‘s’ in island and aisle, either.
Note that as with 'b' in words like debt, historically, in Old English, there was actually no 's' in isle and island. 's' was only added later on the model of Latin and French. The spelling of aisle is yet another matter!

listen: the letter 't' is not pronounced.
There is variation between speakers as to whether they pronounce ‘t’ in listen, often, fasten, hasten (with or without /t/). ‘t’ is not pronounced in the cluster -stle: castle, wrestle. There also is no ‘t’ in Christmas, mortgage.

wrist: the letter 'w' is not pronounced.
‘w’ is absent in wrist, sword, who, two, whole, wrap, wrong.

answer: the letter 'w' is not pronounced.
And no 'w' in answer!

extraordinary: the letter 'a' is not pronounced.
This word is pronounced /ɪkstɾɔːdənɘri/.