Silent letters

Lincoln, the second “l” is silent. What are some other odd silent letter words?

Well to get you going , although I’m not sure if any of these would qualify as ‘odd’ but … there’s the ‘t’ in listen & fasten; the ‘b’ in numb, thumb, lamb not to mention debt & doubt. Then the silent or not ‘t’ in often …

English silent letters are a doddle.

Try learning Irish or Scots Gaelic! Although, to be fair, there was a bit of a clean-up in the 1940’s to get rid of most of them in Irish.

My personal pick for most odd is Corps. What happens to the p and the s in pronunciation?

Phlegm. Wednesday.

Band name!

Colonel.

Worchestershire.

Forecastle.

The Silent Alphabet

A-Aisle
B-Subtle
C-Indict
D-Handsome
E-Forte
F-Neufchatel
G-Gnome
H-Myrrh
I-Heifer
J-Marijuana
K-Knight
L-Talkfest
M-Mnemonic
N-Autumn
O-Leopard
P-Psychotic
Q-Quay
R-Atelier
S-Viscount
T-Nuptial
U-Plaque
V-Volkslied
W-Writhing
X-Billet-doux
Y-Prayer
Z-Rendezvous

Most of these should be obvious, and all can be found in standard American college dictionaries even if they are borrowed from other languages. Neufchatel is the cheese, not the place it’s named for. Volkslied, a type of folk song, is pronounced as in German, with the “v” as an “f”.

That’s WORCESTERSHIRE, pronounced Wuster-sheer.

Not to mention Leicestershire (Lester-sheer).

Who knows how to spell that?

Not only is it not pronounced how it sounds, its spelled in a wierd way.

How would you even pronounce Worcester phonetically anyway? The “wor” part is obvious, but cester? I always want to put an h in there too! I mean really! :smiley:

Unless you want to say “Worces” sounds like “wors” which makes more sense, but very little!

I only kid, but yeah, those are funny.

Not surprising, as it has the same root as the “chester” place element. “Cester” is the older element, I guess, being closer to the Latin “caster”; and “Winchester” was once “Wintoncester” IIRC.

Then there’s Gloucester, of course (“Gloster” - like the aircraft firm that made the Gladiator, but that’s another story.)

If you think that’s bad, then you’ll really struggle with Cholmondeley (“Chumly”) and Featherstonehaugh (“Fanshaw” (sic) ). Diana, Princess of Wales, is buried on Althorp (“Althrup” to the owners) estate. The Norfolk town of Wymondham is pronounced “Win-dem” and the seaside village in much danger of falling into the north Sea, Happisburgh, is pronounced “Hazeboro”. But I’ll leave it to a native Glaswegian to advise you on Milngavie - it can be authentically pronounced half a dozen different ways, of which “Milngavie” is not one. :slight_smile:

Someone mentioned “forecastle” so I’ll add two more nautical terms - there are more - “studding sail” and “boatswain”.