# Let's find silent letters **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 16, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628 "2009-08-16T15:59:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/61 "2009-08-21T20:07:06Z")
Now that you mention it, those X examples would work. “Roux” might be better, though, as more thoroughly incorporated into English (“chateaux” is just a pretentious way of saying “house”, but there’s no other real English word for “roux”). ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/62 "2009-08-21T20:48:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > How does that make the “x” silent, though? hmm…I guess xerox would be the same. Wonder how many other x=z words there are? The wonders of the English language. :rolleyes: Anyone for some Gallagher? ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uWN9rTc08GU/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/uWN9rTc08GU?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/63 "2009-08-21T21:06:43Z")
Most English words that start with X stem from one of four Greek roots: Xero-, meaning “dry”, Xantho-, meaning “Yellow”, Xylo-, meaning “Wood”, or Xeno-, meaning “alien”. All are conventionally pronounced like Z, in English. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/64 "2009-08-21T21:14:36Z")
> [@Jamicat](#): > > Wonder how many other x=z words there are? Pretty much all the ones that start with “x” where the “x” is not part of a compound word: xenon xenophobia xanthium Xerxes Xavier xylem xi ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/65 "2009-08-21T21:21:33Z")
For a silent x there’s _choux_ (pronounced shoo), as in choux pastry. French in origin, but it’s part of English now. (Technically it’s the plural of _chou_, but both are pronounced the same and choux is often used as a singular.) OED entry. > [@](#): > > chou > > Pl. choux (shu); also as sing. > > 1. A small round cake of pastry filled with cream or fruit, etc. Hence chou(x) paste, pastry, a very light egg-enriched pastry. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/66 "2009-08-21T21:59:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now that you mention it, those X examples would work. “Roux” might be better, though, as more thoroughly incorporated into English (“chateaux” is just a pretentious way of saying “house”, but there’s no other real English word for “roux”). “Houses”, to be picky. The singular is “chateau”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/67 "2009-08-21T23:26:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now that you mention it, those X examples would work. “Roux” might be better, though, as more thoroughly incorporated into English (“chateaux” is just a pretentious way of saying “house”, but there’s no other real English word for “roux”). I like “roux.” I hear it commonly enough that I don’t even think of it as a French work (although I understand if others don’t nearly encounter it as often–I like to cook. I wasn’t familiar with the word “choux” until this thread, though.) Another possibility is the word “faux.” ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/68 "2009-08-23T04:15:31Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Surely x is easy: gateaux (or chateaux). > > Marijuana might work for j (in some pronunciations). Mijnheer also, although the j does lengthen the i. I think those examples (and roux and choux) work for X. It is tough to find anything to compare the pronunciation of “marijuana” with as there are no English words containing “iuana”. However, the Merrian Webster pronunciations of “marijuana” and “iguana” suggest to me that the J is silent in the former. The “uana” part of “iguana” is pronounced just the same as in “marijuana” and hence cannot have been influenced by the J (or, I suppose, it could have been influenced excatly the same by both J and G). Hence I am inclined to accept “marijuana” for J. “Rijstaffel” works too. So just looking for V and Y. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/69 "2009-08-23T04:19:58Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > So just looking for … Y. “cockayne” with, interestingly, an alternative spelling of “cockaigne”, which includes a silent G. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628/70 "2009-08-23T04:27:46Z")
The best I can do for V is “civvies”, requiring use of a double letter, which we had avoided to date. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-find-silent-letters/506628.md?page=3)