CONSONANT CLUSTERS

SILENT LETTERS IN ENGLISH

A
Consonant clusters
22 In English, you may find groups of two or three consonant sounds which are grouped together.

Consonant clusters may appear:

• At the beginning of words: grow, square, straight
• At the middle of words: computer, expression, congratulate
• At the end of the words: hoped, branch, strength

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

Note: The consonant /s/ is the first letter / sound in a great number of different consonant pairs; /s/ may
also be the first consonant sound in a group of three consonant sounds.
When there are consonant pairs or groups at the beginning of words, many learners add a vowel
sound before the consonant group or in the middle of it. Be careful! You may get a different word!

23 A B A B
Compare:
sleep asleep sport support
dress address that ski That’s a key
street a street that smile That’s a mile
What snake What a snake!

B
Silent letters are ones that you don’t pronounce when saying a word. They are written down, but you don’t
say them out loud. There are numerous words with silent letters in the English language.
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Silent letters can be at the beginning of the words.
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Silent letters can be at the middle of the words.
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Silent letters can be at the end of the words.

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Exercises

Exercise 10.1
24
Add the letters in the box to the blue words in the text so that it makes sense. Listen and check.

C f g p s t

Exercise 10.2
25
Read the conversation and underline the consonant clusters that you can find. Listen and practice
reading the conversation aloud. Pronounce the underlined words carefully

Exercise 10.3
26
Listen and tick the sentence or phrase you hear, A or B?

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Exercise 10.3
27
Listen and underline the word you hear

Exercise 10.4

Highlight the silent letters in the listed words. Use the dictionary to check your answers.

design plumb receipt anchor Wednesday descend

foreign champagne muscle sword knife reign

chaos gnome listen sandwich ache choir

tomb vehicle chemist doubt hymn wrap

scissors island heir fasten herb (US)

Write the words in phonemic transcription.

/naɪf/

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Speaking practice

Task 1

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