what words have silent letters e.g castle?

Answer 1

There are so many different cases it makes no sense to try to summarize it all in "rules". It works better in most cases simply to memorize the specific words.

BUT you CAN learn some common patterns or GROUPS of words which all have the same silent letter. Here is one attempt to collect some of the most common cases (which I've edited and added a few notes to):

* Kn of Gn at the beginning of a word (silent k/g), e.g. knife, knock, know, gnome, gnaw, gnu

* Ps at the beginning of a word (silent p), e.g. psalm, psychiatry, psychology
* Sc at the beginning of a word followed by 'e' or 'i', (silent c), e.g. scene, scent, science, scissors

* Mn at the end of a word (silent n), e.g. damn, autumn, column (Note that this n IS pronounced in related words -- "damnation, columnar, autumnal")
* Mb at the end of a word (silent b), e.g. comb, lamb, climb.

* Bt (silent b), e.g. debt, doubtful, subtle (but not for the prefix "ob" -- 'obtain', 'unobtrusive')

* Ght (silent gh), e.g. light, night, ought, taught, thought, eight
("-ough" is the trickiest combination, because it has several different pronunciations which are hard to predict. Best just to memorize the individual words)

The letter H is silent in the following situations:
* At the end of word preceded by a vowel, e.g. cheetah, Sarah, messiah;
* Between two vowels, e.g. annihilate, vehement, vehicle
* After the letter 'r', e.g. rhyme, rhubarb, rhythm
* After the prefix 'ex', e.g. exhausting, exhibition, exhort (except when the "ex"-syllable has the accent -- "exhale")
*At the beginning of many Latin words that came to English through French (in which the h was not pronounced), e.g. hour, honor, honest, herb (Later some of these h's began to be pronounced)

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/silentletters01.html


I would add --

*Ft and St (silent t) when followed by -en or -le (most of the time): e.g., often,soften, listen, glisten, hasten, chasten, castle, thistle, whistle, wrestle (Words related to these, that END with ft of st, the t IS pronounced: oft, soft, list, haste, chaste, wrest.)

*Lm, Lk, Lf, Lv, Ld at the end of a word, sometimes in the middle (silent l) e.g., calm, psalm, salmon, talk, walk, half, calves, could


For an explanation of how many of these letters BECAMEsilent, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter


Also:
silent e" in the combination 'vowel + consonant + e" at the end of words (or before an -s or-d suffix)... This e is not entirely useless, because it often indicates that the first vowel is long

related to this -- doubled consonant before endings the begin with a vowel (such as -ed, -ing), indicate that the vowel before these is short. e.g., stopped, batting; compare bating, in which the first vowel is long

Answer 2

Silent Letters
Words are often misspelled when they contain a letter that is not pronounced - the silent p in psychology and related words is an obvious example. It's easy to leave out these silent letters. Some letters are particularly likely to give trouble:


C. Many words are spelled with a silent c following s: for example abscess, descend (with descent); omniscient; words ending in -esce, -escent, or -escence, such as acquiesce, effervescent, convalescent. A silent c may also occur before k or q: examples include acknowledge; acquainted; acquire.


D. Silent d is easy to omit before j, as in adjourn; adjunct; adjudicate; adjust.

G. G should precede n in words like align; foreign; reign. G is also sometimes followed by a silent u, as in guarantee; guard; beleaguered.

H. Silent h is particularly common after r - as in diarrhoea (made harder by the double r and the diphthong oe); haemorrhage (a double r adds to the difficulty again); rhythm.C is another letter likely to be followed by h- in saccharine, for example - and remember the h in silhouette.
While thinking about silent letters, remember the t in mortgage and the b in debt and subtle. Watch out as well for the i in parliament.

Some words may have whole syllables that are not pronounced and may be left out in writing. Contemporary is is often pronounced and spelled contempory; itinerary is similar.



Sometimes the omission of a letter or syllable comes from a mistaken pronunciation. Many people fail to pronounce the c in Arctic and Antarctic, and so leave it out when writing the words. The first r in February is often left out in both speech and writing, as is the first r in secretary. Quantitative may be shortened in speech to the more manageable quantitive, and spelled accordingly.

some examples are
Psycology
Knight
Castle :-)

Answer 3

Hinge a silent E

Answer 4

Knight, Whistle, Zsar,

Answer 5

There a wagons full of gnus of them, gnu being one of the words. Words beginning in 'pn' like pneumonia and pneumatic,
words beginning in 'kn' like knee and knight, 'pt' words like pterodactyl, 'gh' words where the gh quite simply doesn't sound at all, like thigh, and high, and blight, and flight,...oh my, one could go on on this one for hours....I think I'll stop here.

Hey Ho, Maggie!

Answer 6

castle

Answer 7

psycho, xylophone, knight, know, pneumonia

Answer 8

pseudo
psalm

Answer 9

lamb, dumb, thumb, numb