Q1.
Read the following words from the text aloud and circle the letters that are not pronounced (silent letters). ballet (ba-lay) [ba pronounced as in bat]; whistle (wi-sl); alarm (uh-laam); psychologist (sai-ko-luh-juhst). Now, read some more words with silent letters. As you read, circle the letters that are not pronounced: receipt, debris, pneumonia, almond, foreign, island, wreck, aisle, campaign, fasten.
Answer
The four words from the text first — the book's own pronunciation guide tells you which letters have vanished:
| Word | Said as | Silent letter(s) |
|---|---|---|
| ballet | ba-lay | final t (the word came from French, which drops it) |
| whistle | wi-sl | h and t |
| alarm | uh-laam | r (silent in British English before a consonant) |
| psychologist | sai-ko-luh-juhst | initial p |
And the ten practice words:
| Word | Said as | Silent letter(s) |
|---|---|---|
| receipt | ri-seet | p |
| debris | deb-ree | s |
| pneumonia | nyoo-moh-nee-uh | p |
| almond | aa-mund | l |
| foreign | for-in | g |
| island | eye-lund | s |
| wreck | rek | w |
| aisle | eye-l | s (and the final e) |
| campaign | kam-payn | g |
| fasten | faa-sn | t |
Why English is full of these: spelling was fixed by printers around 500 years ago and has barely moved since, while pronunciation kept changing. Some letters were even added by scholars to show a word's Latin origin — the s in island was inserted because of Latin insula, though the English word never had one. Useful patterns: ps-, pn- (psychology, pneumonia) and kn-, wr-, gn- (knee, wreck, gnaw) are silent at the start; -stle, -sten lose the t (castle, listen, fasten); -gn loses the g (foreign, campaign, design).