Hey, are you getting your K-nickers in a twist over English pronunciation?
Well untwist your K-nickers, calm down, and let me introduce you to some silent letters.
Like the 'K' in 'K-nickers'.
That should be silent, it should NOT be pronounced…
So, the correct pronunciation is actually 'knickers'.
And did you spot the other pronunciation mistake that I made?
The 'L' in 'calm', it should be pronounced 'calm' not calm.
Repeat after me ‘calm’, ‘knickers’.
Hello everyone!
Anna here from englishlikeanative.co.uk.
I'm here to help you to enjoy learning English.
As always, get your notebook at the ready,
or click on the link in the description to get your free copy of the lesson notes.
Now, today we’re looking at some silent letters.
These are letters that we write but we don’t say.
And in English, there are lots of common words with silent letters.
So other than the ones I have already mentioned,
‘calm’, ‘knickers’, can you think of any other words containing silent letters?
If so, please pause the video now and write them in the comments or in your notebook.
Now a little listening exercise for you.
Let’s listen to Maria, talking to her flatmate.
Maria will pronounce the letters that should
be silent and I want you to try and spot these errors?
Here we go…
“Hi! I can’t really talk right now.
I’m at the library looking for books on climbing and famous climbers.
Oh yeah, I meant to tell you about that.
It was me, I broke your cupboard!
I know.
I will pay for the repairs.
I’m just in so much debt right now.
Listen, I’ll buy you some chocolate today and when I can afford it,
I’ll pay for the cupboard to be fixed.
Listen, I can’t really talk in this environment.
I’m not allowed to even answer my phone.
I have to go before the librarian knocks on the desk.
That’s how you know that she’s serious!
So, ok, talk to you later, bye!
Sorry again!
Sorry!
Bye, bye.
Ok.
There were quite a few words containing silent letters that Maria mispronounced.
Did you notice them all?
Remember, that you can rewind and play back that part of the
video before I move on and reveal the answers in the next section.
Ok, so, let’s take a look at the words containing silent letters.
First, we had the word ‘talk’.
“Hi! I can’t really talk right now.”
‘Talk’ has a silent ‘L’.
Say it with me.
‘Talk’.
Next, we had ‘climb’.
“I’m at the library looking for books on climbing and famous climbers.”
‘Climb’ has a silent ‘B’.
Say it with me, ‘climb’, ‘climb’.
Then we had ‘cupboard’.
“I meant to tell you about that. It was me, I broke your cupboard!”
The ‘P’ in ‘cupboard’ is silent.
This is the spelling and this is the pronunciation – ‘cupboard’.
Say it with me.
‘Cupboard’.
Next was ‘know’.
“I know. I know.”
‘Know’ has a silent ‘K’ at the beginning.
Now, if a word begins with ‘K’ and then ‘N’ it’s common for that ‘K’ to be silent.
So, if you see ‘KN’ just ignore the ‘K’.
Say it with me.
‘Know’.
Then we had ‘debt’.
“I will pay for the repairs. I’m just in so much debt right now.”
‘Debt’ has a silent ‘B’.
Don’t worry if you didn’t know - as a teacher, I hear my students say this word incorrectly a lot.
It’s a common mispronunciation so don’t stress.
And to be ‘in debt’ means to owe a lot of money.
Say it with me.
‘Debt’.
Next, we had the word chocolate.
“I’ll buy you some chocolate...”
‘Chocolate’ has a silent ‘O’, so just two syllables.
/ˈtʃɒ-klɪt/
‘Chocolate’.
Then there was ‘answer’.
“I’m not allowed to even answer my phone.”
‘Answer’ has a silent ‘W’.
Say it with me.
‘Answer’.
‘Listen’ was another one.
“Listen...”
‘Listen’ has a silent ‘T’.
‘Listen’.
Not ‘lisTen’, but ‘listen’.
Say it with me.
‘Listen’.
Another word mispronounced was ‘environment’.
“I can’t really talk in this environment.”
It has a silent ‘N’ just after the ‘O’.
‘Environment’.
In the dictionary it will sometimes tell you that ‘N’ is pronounced, but in reality, it isn’t.
So don’t say ‘EnvirONment’.
Just ‘Environment’ (/ɪnˈvaɪrəmənt/).
Say it with me.
‘Environment’.
And last but not least, there was ‘knock’, ‘knock’.
“I have to go before the librarian knocks on the desk.”
Just like ‘know’, ‘knock’ starts with ‘K’ and ‘N’ so the ‘K’ here is silent.
Say it with me.
‘Knock’.
Ok, now let’s listen to Maria again with the correct pronunciation of those silent letters.
I will leave a space for you to repeat each line after me.
“Hi!
I can’t really talk right now.
I’m at the library looking for books on climbing and famous climbers.
Oh yeah, I meant to tell you about that.
It was me, I broke your cupboard!
I know.
I know!
I will pay for the repairs.
I’m just in so much debt right now.
Listen, I will buy you some chocolate today
and when I can afford it, I’ll pay for the cupboard to be fixed.
Listen, I can’t really talk in this environment.
I’m not allowed to answer my phone.
I have to go before the librarian knocks on the desk.
That’s how you know she’s serious!
Ok, talk to you later, bye!”
Now, both ‘knock’ and ‘know’ have the same spelling/pronunciation pattern.
Can you think of any other words that start with a silent ‘k’?
If you have a few minutes, why not learn some other words containing silent letters over in
my other silent lessons... letters... lesson.
I'll see you there, take care everyone and goodbye.