Let's find silent letters

It works for me. Merriam-Webster gives two pronunciations - with and without the r. The former sounds most strange to me.

Nobody has mentioned ‘February’. Merriam-Webster’s first listed pronunciation is “fe-b(y)wer-ē”

hehe

I think that’s dialectal though, isn’t it? I pronounce the “r” at least (granted, I also pronounce Wednesday more like Wednsday than the more common Wensday so maybe I don’t count).

I would say that your dialect doesn’t count if you are a loner. If know one you ever knew spoke that way, then you made it up.

So R is the only one left? Surprise is the only one I can think of, but I’m sure a lot of people say the first R. What we need is a French loanword that ends in (e)r. I was going to suggest bonjour, but, again, I think some people pronounce the R.

I bet it ends in -gry!

I’m good with February. We are missing J, V, X, Y. I looked through the Scrabble dictionary and had hopes for jnana, but the J is sounded.

Yeah, like the French, so there’s no reason someone speaking English shouldn’t pronounce it at the end, since we don’t drop ‘r’ sounds at the end of a word.

There’s an old meme that as a general rule the consonants in the word “careful” are pronounced when they end a French word. All other consonants ending words remain silent. (‘M’ and ‘N’ are a bit unique in that they aren’t pronounced as distinct phonetical sounds but as a general nasal sound with open lips. So they’re silent, but they do affect how the word is pronounced.) ‘R’ is a common exception when ending an infinitive in that it is silent, but I can’t offhand think of any French words adopted in English that use a derivative of the infinitive.

Rijstaffel for “j” perhaps? Too foreign, I presume?

never mind

Never heard of it. What does it mean?

Rijstaffel (from the Dutch for “rice table”) is a buffet-type banquet meal featuring dozens of dishes and several different preparations of rice. It’s based on the varied cuisines of Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies).

“Energy” possibly for “y”, since you can say “energ” the same way if you wanted to. :cool:

Creative (and I do see the smiley). Find me another word ending in “erg” that rhymes with energy and I might consider it. Counter examples: iceberg, erg.

“xylophone” for “x”…since its making a z sound and not an ecks

(synergy)

(effigy)

How does that make the “x” silent, though?

I don’t think you understand. I want to see a word ending in “erg” that you would normally pronounce to rhyme with energy or synergy. Only in that way could we regard the final “y” as being silent in your examples.

How about “the letter G”?

:stuck_out_tongue:

Surely x is easy: gateaux (or chateaux).

Marijuana might work for j (in some pronunciations). Mijnheer also, although the j does lengthen the i.