Pron11. Silent items.

Pron11.1 The silent E 3 level 10 min

GOAL. To become aware of the presences of the silent E in written English.

WARMING UP
TASK1. Can you underline the silent written vowel in these words?
medicine, Catherine, restaurant, business, pageant, evening, magician, aspirin
TASK 2. Can we identify the silent E in all these words:
Suffixes: blameless, hopeful, announcement, judgement, tiresome
Names: Charles, Philippines, James, Giles, Wales

LANGUAGE PRACTICE
TASK 3. Read aloud the words in the box and answer the questions below.
close, recipe, Nike, lake, tome, Chile, coyote, hole,
Apache, these, write, karate, apostrophe, rose, nose

Q1. Which is the main difference of these two groups with a final –E?
………………………………………….
Q2. Sort them out. Group 1: close, ………………………………………….………………………………….
Group 2: recipe, ………………………………………….………………………………………….
Q3. Why the group2 is comporting differently? ………………………………………
Q4. Are these words of English origin? ….………………………………………….

TASK4. Pay attention to the letter E and increase the 7 given lists with the words from the box below.
1- (at the end, to make a double vowel): toe, shoe, blue
2-(in the middle):evening,every,vegetable,surgeon Tuesday, Wednesday……………………………
3- with <ie> piece, niece, brief, chief, achieve, ……………………………
4- with <er> interesting, literature, temperature, monastery ……………………………
5- with palatal sounds (French words) > ocean, surgeon ……………………………

6- often silent before l; as in drivel, grovel, hazel, shovel, ……………………………

7- often silent before n as in written ……………………………

shovel, lately, grief, Peugeot, Noel, juice, Joel, bone, thieves, literature, pigeon, bore, spoken
Pron11.2 Silent vocalic letters: A –I-O-U 3 level 10 min
GOAL. To become aware of how the stress or the suffixes make silent letters.

TASK 1. Pay attention to the letters <a> & <o> and increase the five given lists with the words from
the box below.
Silent <a>: 1- unstressed syllable –AR: separate
2-ending –ALLY or -ARY: musically, realistically, contemporary ……………………………

silent >o>: 1- final –ORY:

2- sometimes silent before l or n as in simbol, bacon, person, reason……………………………
3- chocolate, gaol, people, ……………………………

cruise, Barbara, unique, basin, Niagara, category, territory

logically, leopard, juice, weapon, idol, laboratory, Margaret

TASK 2. Pay attention to the letter <I> and increase the four given lists
1- in the combination <UI> : fruit, suit, friend, suitable, nuisance, ……………………………

2- sometimes silent before l or n ( as in evil or cousin) ……………………………

3- unstressed digraphs (marriage or parliament) ……………………………

4- with a CI- or SI- : inversion, admission, racial

carriage, business, obsession, suspicious, basin, social, juice, compulsion, diversion,

TASK 3. Pay attention to the letter <U> and increase the four lists with the words in the box below.
1- Gutural sounds /gu/ /q/ in (French words): critique, guard ……………………………
2- /g/ sounds (other than French): guerrilla, tongue, guilty, guess, ……………………………
3 - aunt, laugh, gauge (n,v) ……………………………
4- unstressed syllables: ………………, ………………..

guardian, unique, draught, guest, guidance, guise, guinea, circuit

antique, plague, guild, guiness vague, biscuit, guillotine, guitar, guarantee

TASK4. My 10 favourite mistakes with silent vowels are:

laboratory – lemon – Britain – aunt - ……………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
KEY pronunciation 11. Silent items
pron 11.1 Silent E
TASK1. Can you underline the silent written vowel in these words?
med-i-cine, Cath-e-rine, rest-au-rant, bus-i-ness, pag-e-ant, ev-e-ning, magic-i-an, asp-i-rin
TASK 2. Can we identify the silent E in all these words:
Before Suffixes: blam-e-less, hop-e-ful, announc-e-ment, judg-e-ment, tir-e-some
Names: Charles, Philippines, James, Giles, Wales (final –E-s)

LANGUAGE PRACTICE
TASK 3. Q1. Which is the main difference of these two groups with a final –E? silent or /i:/
Q2. Sort them out. Group 1: close, lake, tome, hole, these, write, , rose, nose
Group 2: recipe, Nike, Chile, coyote, Apache, karate, apostrophe,
Q3. Why the group2 is comporting differently? they have an extra syllable.
Q4. Are these words of English origin? No (1French, 2,5 Greek: apnea niché = wingless victory, agood brand
for Sports!), American sources.

Task 4: 6, 2, 3, 5, 6, 1, 3, 4, 5, 1, 7
shovel, lately, grief, Peugeot, Noel, juice, Joel, bone, thieves, literature, pigeon, bore, spoken

pron 11.2 Silent A I O U letters

TASK 5. Silent <a>: logically, NiagAra, BarbAra, MargAret

Silent <o>: weapon, idol, leopard, laboratORY, categORY, territORY

TASK 6. Silent <i>: business, crUIse, jUIce, basiN, carrIAGE (-AGE: unstressed ending)
soCIal, suspiCIous, obseSSIon, compulSIon, diverSIon

TASK 7. Silent <u>: rogue, draught, guest, unique, guidance, guise, guinea, guardian,

Task 8. Open
Pron 11.3 Fishing silent consonants 3 level 15 min

GOAL. To become aware of the regularities of the silent consonants in English spelling.

TASK 1. Observe that several elements can be silent in English pronunciation. Underline them:
The shepherd is going to give the calves a foreign medicine from his own honest veterinary. (6
words)
The wrong advertisement was humbly released without much talk in the island (6 words)
There will be doubt if she knew about the right answers before Wednesday (5 words)
She fastened the belt around her waistcoat and couldn’t reach for the aisle (4 words)
Did the ninja often crack almonds with her sword in the gaol? (4 words)

TASK 2. Identify the silent letters in each list. Describe their sound context and explain what they
have in common. (check the ones you don’t know :-)
LIST1. little, written, borne, done, Joel, rotten
LIST2. chalk, talk, could, walk,almond, palm, would,
LIST3. write, know, wrong, who, knight, wrist, whore, kneel,
LIST4. high, night, though, drought, light, height,
LIST5. handkerchief, waistcoast, handsome, sandwich
LIST6. hasten, castle, whistle, fasten, answer, Greenwich
LIST7. debt, receipt, doubt, climber,thumb
LIST8. honest, heir, hour, pneumonia, pseudonym
LIST9. black, apple, science, scissors, dubbing, adolescent

TASK 3. Match the explanations to the list given above.

a) The second syllable gets simple sounds losing the medial consonant as in whistle
b) Compounds lose the medial contact consonant as in cupboard
c) Double consonant sound is not repeated as in descend
d) The lateral sound melts with the vowel, sometimes changing it as in balk
e) The digraph is silent but mostly lenghthens the vowel sound as in right
f) bilabial consonant doesn’t sound before dental or after /m/ as in plumber
g) Initial letter is silent in these words of Germanic originas in knack or wrap
h) The first letter is silent in latin words as in honour or psyche
i) The syllabic consonant /b/ or /n/ may have a written ‘e’ that remains silent

TASK 4. My 10 favourite mistakes with silent consonants are:

Greenwich,sword,Palmolive, ………………………………………………………………………………..
Pron 11.4 Sorting out silent consonants: B, L, SC & H 3 level 15 min

GOAL. To become aware of the regular patterns of four silent consonants in English spelling.

WARMING UP
TASK 1. Find the 4 silent consonants in this list and underline them.
folklore, scepter, yolk, subtle, Thomas, lamb, stalk,
bomber, isthmus, napalm, salmon, Lincoln

TASK 2. Collect other specimens and observe how we may organise the letter B.

B is silent after m as in lamb & bomb, ……………..

and before t: subtle & doubt ……………

Notice the Bomb word family: bombing, bomber, bombs & bombard
Q1. Is it always silent? ………………….

TASK 3. Try to do the same with letter L following the directions given below.

silent L. psalm, napalm, walk, folklore, talk, colonel,

Lincoln, stalk salmon, almond, balm,

calm, palm, , half, behalf, calf, yolk, folks, …………

L is silent after ‘a’ as in ……….

and also changes this ‘a’> /O / as in ……..
and before o > /ou/ as in ………………………... ……………………..

COMMENT:

TASK 4. Collect other specimens with SC and copy them below.

try to organise them somehow as in task 3.
LETTER SC:
letter SC
TASK 5. Try to organise them somehow as in task 3.
LETTER SC:
scissors, scent, adolescent, muscles (= /mussels/), scene (=/seen/), scythe, ………..
letter C

Notice what happens with sceptic. Explain: ……………………………………….

TASK 6. Collect other specimens with silent H and try to organise them somehow as in task 3.

LETTER H: heir, herb, honest; ghetto, ghostly; rheum, rhyme, myrrh; halleluiah; isthmus
Thomas, Theresa, Anthony, Thames, rhyme, Oprah, Halleluiah, Hannah, Messiah,
letter H

TASK 7. My 10 favourite mistakes with silent consonants are:

………………………………………………………………………………..

FOLLOW UP

There are many forieng waords that follow the sound of origin, like French words. Find them.
pron11.3 Fishing Silent consonants
TASK 1:
The shepherd is going to give the calves a foreign medicine from his own honest veterinary. (6 words)
The wrong advertisement was humbly released without much talk in the island (6 words)
There will be doubt if she knew about the right answers before Wednesday (5 words)
She fastened the belt around her waistcoat and couldn’t reach for the aisle (4 words)
Did the ninja often crack almonds with her sword in the gaol? (4 words)
TASK 2 & 3. 1 I 2D 3G 4E 5B 6A 7F 8H 9C

Pron 11.4 Sorting out silent consonants: B, L, SC & H

TASK 1. Find the 4 silent consonants in this list and underline them.
L in folklore, yolk, stalk, napalm, salmon, Lincoln C in scepter H in Thomas, isthmus
B in subtle, lamb, , bomber (& comb, climb, dumb, jamb, lamb, tomb; debt, doubt; subtle)
TASK 2 B is silent after m as in bomb, climb, dumb, jamb, lamb, tomb;
and before t: debt, doubt; subtle.

COMMENT: notice this word family:

bombing, bomber, bombs but not silent in bom-bard (2 syllables)
TASK 3. L is silent after ‘a’ as in psalm, napalm salmon, almond, balm calm, palm, , half, behalf, calf
and also changes this ‘a’> /O / as in talk walk, , stalk
and before o > /ou/ as in yolk, folks, folklore, colonel, Lincoln
COMMENT: In all cases the length of the sound is a result of the loss of /l/
TASK 5. letter C in combination sc- as in scissors, scent, scene, scythe (also in science, …..)
in medial position: adolescent, muscles (also in reminiscences, …….)

COMMENT: Except: NOT skeptic so it does NOT sound as septic!

TASK 6. letter H: is silent in latin words: herb, honest, + honour(able), isthmus
in the gh- combination: ghetto, ghostly
in the rh- combination: rheum, rhyme, myrrh
in final position with Hebrew words: Halleluiah, Hannah, Messiah, Oprah
in certain names: Thomas, Theresa, Anthony, Thames
and strangely enough in heir (homophone to air) but NOT heritage, hereditary, ….