What are they for ?

Question

I know this is dumB, but what is the purpose of silent letters? Comb, bomb, ofTen, etc.

Answer 1

At one time, the silent letters were pronounced, but we have since dropped that way of speaking, but the spelling has stayed the same.

The reason we kept the spelling is so you can tell the difference between words like KNOT and NOT.

Another reason is that English has only 5 letters for vowels (and sometimes "y"), so different letter combinations are used as a means of knowing how to pronounce a word.

It's not perfect and I'm sure as time goes on the language will continue to metamorph - for the better or worse.

Answer 2

although they are silent, they act as a guide on how to pronounce the whole word. For example, Comb is pronounces different then Com. And the T in often really isn't silent, just not heavily emphasized. Other words are like that becasue of their root origin. Its just part of the language. every language has its weird little things, like Spanish with the double L sounding like a Y

Answer 3

Silent letters are leftovers from the evolution of the English language. Often, words in English have slowly changed over time since English like French and Spanish are based originally on Latin. Certain letters like b on the end of words are spellings that used to be pronounced differently.

Answer 4

english lungwage is crazy as what others sees and says ..

there is no egg on eggplant ... there is no apple on pineapple
you cannat buy a bye to by via bay ...

you cannat get a fish on phase1 or phase2 with your face looking so pissed ... you cannot say please play and place the bull or ball ground or grand ..

butt you u yeah can silent sigh length any litters letters laters latters using you sing english eng less words

Answer 5

to keep the phonetically challenged harebrained fools from pronouncing the words right, thus impeding their efforts of maintaining an intellectual conversation

Answer 6

to have a laugh & confuse dyslexics!!! OF COURSE!!!