how the letter becomes silent in english words?

Answer 1

Reasons for 'silent' letters
1. distinguishing whole from hole, plum from plumb, hour from our, etc
2. showing long vowels rid/ride, 'hard' consonants guest/gest
3. connecting different forms of the same word resign/resignation.

Causes of 'silent' letters
1. historical change: the sound has dropped out of the word over time but the spelling has not changed: light, hope, knot
2. addition of letters: the letter was added to make the spelling more 'French' or 'Latin': debt, victual, island
3. difficult sound combinations: The sound combination difficult to say: handkerchief, sandwich
4. borrowings: the word was originally borrowed from another language, complete with spelling: champagne, khaki, my

Examples of each letter being silent
This excludes letter pairs which link to a single sound of their own such as 'th' in this. Some letters seem never to be silent

A
artistically, dramatically, stoically, musically, romantically, logically
B
climb, numb, plumb, comb, thumb, tomb, Woolacombe, crumb, debt, doubt, subtle
C
acquit, victual, Jacques, acquire, czar, indict, Connecticut, muscle, scissors, Tucson
D
grandson, handkerchief, sandwich, handsome, landscape, Windsor, Wednesday
E
rite, fame, serve, enclose, bridge, more, careful, clue, lonely, vogue, hope, corpse, fate
F
halfpenny
G
though, light, align, gnash, reign, champagne, diaphragm, high, gnaw, ghost, intaglio
H
hour, hurrah, Pooh, khaki, Gandhi, heir, Birmingham, exhaust, Thames, exhibition
I
business
J
(none)
K
know, knead, knot, knife, knickers, knell, knight, Knox, Knowles, blackguard, knock
L
salmon, psalm, almond, calf, half, folk, yolk, Colne, Norfolk, chalk, calm, talk
M
mnemonic
N
autumn, solemn, condemn, damn, hymn, monsieur, column, chimney
O
(none) ?colonel?
P
corps, pneumonia, pseudo, ptomaine, psychology, ptomaine, coup, receipt, Thompson

Q
(none)
R
myrrh, diarrhoea (in British English all r's are 'silent' before consonants as in card or before silence as in car)
S
island, isle, viscount, apropos, aisle, debris, bourgeois, Illinois, Basle, bourgeois, fracas
T
ballet, ricochet, Christmas, gourmet, tsunami, thistle, rapport, asthma, listen, castle, soften
U
guest, questionnaire, guitar, catalogue, guilt, tongue, colleague, guide, dialogue
V
(none)
W
sword, greensward, answer, Greenwich, Norwich, write, two, wrist, writ, *****, whole
X
faux pas, Sioux
Y
(none)
Z
rendezvous, laissez-faire, chez

Answer 2

There is no advantage. Silent letters are vestiges from an earlier period. English is constantly evolving, and has been for a long time. The word knight, for example, is now pronounced nit, with a long vowel sound. At one time, this word was pronounced as knikt, with a short vowel sound. It rhymed with clicked. Spelling was not always standardized, so English and US spellings differ on some words. The one handy silent letter is the e at the end of a word. When teaching youngsters to read, I use the rule that the e at the end makes the vowel before say its own name. This helps them differentiate between words like sit and site.

Answer 3

It is not only the english language that has letters that are silent, someone came up with the idea of how to spell words to make life harder, I would like to take that person out and shoot him, who would in their right mind put a QU next to each other or a kn for that matter, the silent letters are unpronouncable

Answer 4

If you are not sure look it up in a dictionary. They have pronunciations indicating what is silent.

Sanskrit has 36 sounds, English has only 26 sounds, so you have to accommodate certain sound thru silent treatment.

This is common to French and other European Languages.

Answer 5

When the going gets tough the toughest keep silent!

Answer 6

Silent B

The "b" is silent when preceded by an "m" at the end of a word: climb, bomb.
The "b" is often silent when followed by a "t": debt, doubt. But not always: obtain, obstruct.
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Silent C

The "c" is silent when preceded by an "s" followed by an 'e' or an 'i' at the beginning of a word: scenic, scenario, science.
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Silent K

The "k" is silent when followed by an "n": knife, knot, knee.
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Silent N

The "n" is silent when preceded by an "m": autumn, column.
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Silent P

The "p" is silent when followed by an "s": psychiatrist, psychotic.
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Silent GH

The "gh" is silent when followed by a "t": night, bought.
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Silent H

The "h" is silent when preceded by a "p": shepherd.
The "h" is silent when preceded by a "g": ghost.
The "h" is silent when it comes between two vowels: vehicle.
The "h" is silent when followed by the letter 'r': rhythm.
The "h" is silent when preceded by the letters 'ex': exhausted.
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Silent S

The "s" is silent when followed by the letter 'l': island, aisle.
[edit]
Silent T

The "t" is silent in words like: castle, Christmas, listen, often, whistle, fasten.
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Silent U

The "u" is silent when preceded by the letter "g" and followed by a vowel: guess, guitar.
[edit]
Silent W

The "W" is silent followed by the letter "r" at the beginning of a word: write, wrong.

Answer 7

By "Listen" ing. If you cant hear it, it is silent (both of them incidentally has same letters - silent and listen)

Answer 8

english, the language of 100 rules and 1000 exceptions.

you can even spell the word "fish" as "ghoti"

gh as in cough = f
o as in women = i
ti as in action = sh

Answer 9

if it cannot be pronounced adjascent to the syllable it become silent, "knight" here k is silent ,

Answer 10

calm