English has acquired words from many different source languages, such as Latin and French, and even more remote languages like Chinese and Japanese. Some of these words settle rather uncomfortably into English with the result that some of the letters don’t match the pronunciation. In the list below you will find aisle and corps from French, and asthma from Greek. Others have had letters added to them to make a link with Latin, like the b in doubt.
Looking on the bright side, silent letters can make all the difference between words which have the same pronunciation. A llama (from a South American language via Spanish) should not be confused with a lama (from Tibetan), for example. Our visual memory should help us to distinguish between the two words.
Try these memory tips:
aghast: - Don’t forget the silent h after the g. Try thinking that you would be aghast if you saw a ghost. Join these words together, change to the o to an a, and you have aghast.
aisle - Don’t forget the unusual spelling of ais (with a silent s) to give an ‘uy’ sound. Aisle is spelt and pronounced in this way because it comes from French.
asthma - Don’t forget the silent th. Think about how you get a thick feeling in your chest when you have asthma and remember to add in the th when you spell it.
corps - Don’t forget the ps at the end. Corps has this spelling and sound because it comes from French where it means ‘body’. But remember that a corps is a group or body of people. Don’t confuse it with corpse, which is a dead body.
doubt - Don’t forget the silent b. The b is left behind from the Latin word it originally came from - - dubitare.
island - Don’t forget the s after the i. You might remember that you can swim all the way around an island to remind you of the silent s.
llama - Don’t forget the two l’s at the start. The second l is silent. Don’t confuse this with lama (with a single l) which is a Buddhist monk or priest.
science - Don’t forget the silent c following the s at the start. Also notice that the ie after the c does not appear to follow the normal rule of i before e except after c. This is because the i and the e are part of two separate syllables in this word, rather than going together to make an ‘ee’ sound. Science comes from scientia, the Latin word for ‘knowledge’.
thumb - Don’t forget the silent b at the end. Other words with a similar spelling are dumb and crumb.