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NCERT Solutions for Class 4th English Chapter 12 B. Read the word ‘design’ aloud. What did you observe? — Let us Learn

Book page 130 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Read the word ‘design’ aloud. What did you observe?
Answer

The letter ‘g’ is silent. We write de-s-i-g-n, but we say “di-zine”. The g is never heard.

A silent letter is a letter we write but do not say. English has quite a few of them.

Why a letter goes silent: Words change slowly over many years. People stop saying a sound, but the spelling stays as it always was. So the letter is still on the page, even though nobody says it any more.
Where you met this word: The lesson says about the Maheshwari sarees, “the designs are so unique” (page 127). Read that line aloud and listen — you will not hear the g.
Other silent letters you may know: the k in knee, the w in write, the b in comb.
Q2.
Now, read the following words. Underline the words that have a silent ‘g’ letter.
sign   light   goat   night   sing   sugar   king   high   magnet
The word box printed on page 130signlightgoatnightsingsugarkinghighmagnet
The nine words printed in the box on page 130 of your book.
Answer

Underline these four words: sign, light, night, high.

WordHow we say itSilent ‘g’?
sign“sine”Yes — underline it
light“lite”Yes — underline it
goat“gote”No — you can hear the g
night“nite”Yes — underline it
sing“sing”No — see the note below
sugar“shoo-gar”No — you can hear the g
king“king”No — see the note below
high“hy”Yes — underline it
magnet“mag-net”No — you can hear the g
The pattern to remember: In light, night and high the g sits next to an h. That pair gh is silent. In sign the g sits before an n, and it is silent there too.
Careful with sing and king: Here the g is not silent. It joins the n in front of it to make one new sound at the end — the humming ng you hear in sing, king and ring. Say “sin” and then “sing”. They are not the same, so the g is doing a job. That is why we do not underline them.
Try this: Two more words with a silent gh are right and bright. One more with a silent g before n is gnat.
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