#Silent_Letters_in_English

#Silent_Letters_in_English
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What is Silent Letter?
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A silent letter is the letter in words that is not pronounced but make a huge difference to the meaning and pronunciation of the whole word.
Looking back to the history of the language, these letters were pronounced initially, and then they became silent. There are a lot of silent letters in English, it’s said that around 60 % of words in English have silent letters. This makes spelling and pronunciation more difficult for learners. Below we will look at some silent letter rules that will help you recognize when certain letters are to be silent.
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#Silent_Letters_in_English
There are some rules that explain which letters are supposed to be silent, before and after certain letters (the only issue about this is that, like all English rules – there are usually some exceptions!). once you start practicing these rules and using with new vocabulary that you learn, it will become easier to remember silent letters in English.
*#Silent_B*
Rule 1: The letter B is usually not pronounced after M at the end of a word.
• Comb, bomb, thumb, climb, tomb, crumb, lamb
Rule 2: B is usually not pronounced before the letter T.
• Doubt, doubtful, subtle, debt.
*#Silent_C*
Rule 1: The letter C is usually not pronounced in the combination of SC.
• Scissors, ascent, fascinate, muscle.
Rule 2: C is usually mute before the letters K and Q.
• Lock, block, puck, acknowledge.
• Aqua, Acquit, Acquiesce.
*#Silent_D*
Rule 1: The letter D is silent when it appears before the letters N and G.
• Wednesday, cadge, Pledge, grudge.
Rule 2: D is not pronounced in the following Common words:
• Wednesday, handsome, handkerchief, sandwich.
*#Silent_E*
Rule 1: If the letter E comes at the ends of words, it is generally not pronounced.
• Fore, table, before, write, give, hide.
Rule 2: If E occurs before the letter D in the second and third form of the verbs, E may sometimes not to be pronounced.
• Bored, fixed, smuggled, begged.
*#Silent_G*
Rule 1: The G letter is not pronounced when it comes before N in a word.
• Design, foreign, sign, gnash, align.
Exceptions: Magnet, igneous, cognitive, signature
*#Silent_GH*
Rule 1: GH is not pronounced when it comes after a vowel in a word.
• High, light, thought, through alight.
Rules 2: Exceptions: GH is pronounced separately in compound words (As you can see in the following words that exceptions are generally compound words).
• Doghouse, bighead, foghorn.
Rule 3: Except examples from rule 1, GH is sometimes pronounced like F, consider the words below.
• Drought, cough, laugh, tough.
*#Silent_H*
Rule 1: The letter H is usually silent when it appears after W.
• Why, what, when, weather, where.
Rule 2: Sometimes the letter H is not silent after W, consider the words below.
• Whose, whosoever, who, whoever, whole.
Rule 3: H is mute at the beginning of many words (remember to use the article “an” with unvoiced H).
• Hour, honest, honour, heir.
Rule 4: Exceptions: Most of the words beginning with H are not silent (remember to use the article “a” with voiced H)
• History, Historical, Hair, Happy.
*#Silent_K*
Rule: The letter K is always silent when it precedes the letter N in a word.
• Know, knock, knife, knight, knowledge.
*#Silent_L*
Rule: The letter L is usually not pronounced after the vowels: A, O and U.
• Calf, half, palm, would, should, could, folk, yolk.
*#Silent_N*
Rule: The letter N is not pronounced when it comes after M at the end of a word.
• Column, damn, solemn, autumn.
*#Silent_P*
Rule: The letter P is not pronounced at the he beginning of many words using the combinations PS, PT and PN.
• Psalm, psephology, pterodactyl, pneumonia, pneumatic.
*#Silent_PH*
Rule: PH is sometimes pronounced like F.
• Sophia, paragraph, elephant, telephone.

*What Are Affixes

*What Are Affixes?*
 
An *affix* is added to the root of a word to change its meaning.

*Different Types of Affixes:*
The two most common types of *affixes* are *prefixes* and *suffixes*.

An *affix* added to the front of a word is known as a *prefix*. One added to the back is known as a *suffix*. Sometimes, *prefixes* are hyphenated.

*Examples of Affixes:*
Here are some examples of *affixes*:
1- incapable (The affix is the prefix in).

2- ex-President (The affix is the prefix ex-).

3- laughing (The affix is the suffix ing).
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A *prefix* is an element placed at the beginning of a word to adjust or qualify its meaning, for example de-, non-, and re-.

A *suffix* is an element placed at the end of a word to form a derivative, such as -ation, -fy, -ing, frequently one that converts the stem into another part of speech.

A combining form can be either a *prefix* or a *suffix*; the difference is that the combining form adds a layer of extra meaning to the word.
For example, bio- adds the idea of life or living things to words, as in biochemistry, the study of the chemical processes which occur within living organisms; -cide adds the idea of killing or a killing agent, as in pesticide. Compare these examples with a *prefix* such as ex- or a *suffix* such as -ic, neither of which add meaning, but only modify an existing meaning.

Combining forms only appear as elements in a compound. If it can stand alone as a word it is not a combining form. For example, carbo- only appears in compounds to indicate carbon, but there are many related words that begin with carbon-; these are considered to be compound words and carbon- is not listed on this site as a combining form. Having said that, in some cases a combining form has at some point in its life taken on the status of a free-standing word (cyber- is an example), but if its primary function is as a combining form, it appears in its place in the text.

To be a combining form an element must be found attached to stems that also have intrinsic meaning; this excludes stems whose only compounds are grammatical variations, such as intense (intensive, intensively, intensiveness).
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An *infix* is placed within a word; these are rare in English, though cupful can be made plural as cupsful by inserting the plural s as an *infix*; *infixes* sometimes occur in facetious creations like absobloodylutely (which some grammarians would rather describe as tmesis). Infixes often appear as linking vowels between *prefixes* and stems, for example the final letters of narco- and calci-. They are also found between a stem ending in a consonant and a *suffix* beginning with one, as with -ferous, which frequently appears as -iferous, or -logy, which is commonly seen as -ology. The only examples of such linking vowel *infixes* here are -i- and -o-.

No formal identification is made in the text of the class of *affix* to which entries belong. The position of the hyphen is sufficient indication whether it is placed at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word: neo-, -i-, -graphy.
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*Most Common Prefixes:*
The four most common *prefixes* are dis-, in-, re-, and un-. These account for over 95% of prefixed words.

*Most Common Suffixes:*
The four most common *suffixes* are -ed, -ing, -ly, and -es. These account for over 95% of suffixed words.