Silent letters

I want to give my two cents :P (pequena contribuição)

Quando estava estudando pronuncia, achava que só a letra "e" no final das palavras que era muda (silent) mas depois descobri que existem outras. Compartilho este texto com voces que explica outras letras em outros casos.
Espero que gostem, abraços, Taísy Silva :D

Silent B - B is not pronounced when
following M at the end of a word.
EX: climb / crumb / dumb / comb

Silent D - D is not pronounced in the
following common words:
handkerchief / sandwich / Wednesday

Silent E - E is not pronounced at the end of
words and usually makes the vowel long.
hope / drive / gave / write / site

Silent G - G is not often not
pronounced when followed by an N
champagne / foreign / sign / feign

Silent GH - GH is not pronounced before
T and at the end of many words
thought / through / daughter / light / might / right / fight / weigh

Silent H - H is not pronounced when following W.
Some speakers whisper the H before the W.
what / when / where / whether / why

Silent H - H is not pronounced at the beginning of many words.
Use the article "an" with unvoiced H.
Here are some of the most common:
hour / honest / honor / heir / herb

Pronounced H - H is pronounced at the beginning of these common words.
Use the article "a" with voiced H.
hill / history / height / happy / hangover

Silent K - K is not pronounced when followed by
N at the beginning of a word.
knife / knee / know / knock / knowledge

Silent L - L is often not pronounced before L, D, F, M, K.
calm / half / salmon / talk / balk / would / should /

Silent P
P is not pronounced at the beginning of
many words using the suffix "psych" and "pneu".
psychiatrist / pneumonia / psychotherapy / psychotic

Silent S - S is not pronounced before L in the following words:
island / isle

Silent T - T is not pronounced in these common words:
castle / Christmas / fasten / listen / often / whistle / thistle

Silent U - U is not pronounced before after G and before a vowel.
guess / guidance / guitar / guest

Silent W - W is not pronounced at the beginning of a word followed by an R.
wrap / write / wrong

Silent W - W is not pronounced with these three pronouns:
who / whose / whom

TESTE DE NÍVEL
Faça um teste de inglês e descubra seu nível em 10 minutos! Este teste foi desenvolvido por professores experientes. O resultado sai na hora e com gabarito. Você ainda ganha o eBook sobre o Verbo Get em seu e-mail. INICIAR TESTE
11 respostas
Ordenar por: Data
josneywat 6
OFTEN , o T é pronunciado por muitos falantes. Não corrijam quando eles pronunciarem o "T".
Donay Mendonça 23 127 1.7k
Hi Josneywat,

I had heard about it but had never really emphasized it much,

Thank you for the information!


;)
Valeu Josney,
não sabia dessa particularidade... Thanks
josneywat 6
Yes, some local accents do utter the 't' in often.
maryziller 1 2
There is a general rule in phonetics that when we have 3 consonants together as in the words below, one of the consonants gets dropped (is not pronounced, is silent). This is called elision.

Whistle The 't' is dropped.
Christmas The 't' is dropped.
‘exactly’, The 't' is dropped.
‘mostly’ and The 't' is dropped.
‘friendship’) The 'd' is dropped.

http://www1.tcue.ac.jp/home1/k-gakkai/r ... yuzawa.pdf explains that "The alveolar stop, both voiced and voiceless, is subject to elision when it is medial in a cluster of
three consonants. Elision takes place within words (e.g. ‘exactly’, ‘mostly’ and ‘friendship’) and
across words (e.g. ‘soft voice’, ‘last chance’ and ‘hold tight’). Because of elision, ‘like them’ may be
homophonous with ‘liked them’."

What does that mean?
It means that the middle consonant is dropped in words like in the preceding list. I just (apenas, só) posted the linguistic jargon so learners can search on the terms, if they require more information. Also, since our fourm is mulilevel (comprised speakers of all levels of proficiency from beginners to advanced to near native speakers and teachers), some of our more advanced learners will probably like the more precise quoted explanation.

When there are three or more consonants together, native speakers do not always produce as many consonant sounds. For example, the final consonant cluster in the word "fifths" is usually reduced to the last two consonant phonemes. (source: http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phono.html

"Elision of consonants in English happens most commonly when a speaker "simplifies" a complex consonant cluster: 'acts' becomes / aks / rather than / akts /, 'twelfth night' becomes / twel nat / or /twelf nat / rather than / twelf nat /." (source: http://www.scribd.com/document_download ... _password= p. 24).

REGARDING SILENT 'E'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVC9TayQIh8 has a cute song about the silent 'e.'
ATIVE O ENGLISH PLUS
Além de aprender sem anúncios, você terá acesso: aos Cursos do English Experts, a respostas verificadas por especialistas (ilimitado) e ao aplicativo Meu Vocabulário. ATUALIZAR AGORA
Adorei Maryziller suas considerações.... Ampliaram muito meu conhecimento a cerca do tema!
Thank you very much
Muito legal o vídeo.. Vale a pena conferir pessoal!!!
josneywat escreveu:OFTEN , o T é pronunciado por muitos falantes. Não corrijam quando eles pronunciarem o "T".
I found a video where a man says "often" without pronouncing the 't' and, right after that, pronouncing the 't'. Take a look at it (at 9:43):
"(...) I'd like to say not more often but probably they are more often (...)"

Hope it helps! ;)
Pra mim que tenho dificuldades em pronúncia esse tópico é muito interessante! Valeu por postar ele aqui.
Um aluno perguntou e eu não soube responder:

Por que em algumas palavras (como Hour) o H é mudo e em outras (como Heaven) o H é sonoro? Qual a regra?
Donay Mendonça 23 127 1.7k
Yuri,

Não há uma regra boa que ajude o aluno; o convívio com o idioma é a melhor solução. Temos alunos fluentes que não sabem a regra, porém, ao encontrarem determinada palavra, sabem pronunciar corretamente. A dica é dar tempo ao tempo e dar ênfase à conversação nas aulas, com isso, seus alunos vão saber pronunciar bem os sons do "h".
ATIVE O ENGLISH PLUS
Além de aprender sem anúncios, você terá acesso: aos Cursos do English Experts, a respostas verificadas por especialistas (ilimitado) e ao aplicativo Meu Vocabulário. ATUALIZAR AGORA
Henry Cunha 3 18 190
yuri.fh escreveu:Um aluno perguntou e eu não soube responder:

Por que em algumas palavras (como Hour) o H é mudo e em outras (como Heaven) o H é sonoro? Qual a regra?
Provavel que devido a serem palavras emprestadas do latim, começando com ho: honest, honour, etc.

Mas eu não me recordo de nenhum h mudo qdo a palavra começa com ha, he, hi, hu

haver = have
helicoptero = helicopter
hipotese = hypothesis
humano = human

Existe alguma vindo no latim?