Those Slimy, Sneaky Scoundrels

He is everywhere! He sneaks around quietly right before our eyes, yet, we don’t hear him. This common intruder has caused confusion, and wreaked havoc on the pages of written word throughout the world for ages. This inconspicuous villain is called Silent Letter. Because of Silent Letter students have struggled as they try to put letters together to create words. They have agonized over the weekly spelling quiz, composing a simple essay, and writing that summer camp letter to send home to  mom and dad. Silent Letter, probably the culprit for countless emotional breakdowns!

Silent letter has many disguises. He appears not just as one letter, but many. Rules have appeared in English books, like wanted posters on the post office bulletin board, to help identify this enemy of word construction, but often the rules leave us even more confused. For instance, consider Silent H. He is not heard when he comes after W. We see him there in words like “when”, and “what”, but he is really not there when we think he should be pronounced. We see him in the word “whether” and because he is not pronounce poor “whether” is very often misspelled.

Silent H appears incognito in yet another form. He is silent when he is seen at the beginning of many words. “Hour” is pronounced “our” which is another word altogether. “Honest”, and “honour” are weighted down by that unnecessary Silent H. I don’t think he is honorable or honest. But Silent H makes himself even more difficult to detect because he hides behind an exception. We hear him loud and clear when he begins the words “hill”, “history” and “happy”. He shouts at us, teasing us, questioning us, “Can you hear me now?” Just when we think we may have captured Silent H he runs and partners with C, G and R. He holds hands with them standing on their right. “Choir”, “chorus”, “aghast”, and “rhythm” provide sanctuary for Silent H and our spelling woes continue.

When Silent H joins forces with G as in GH and they follow a vowel more serious problems arise. There they are, that G and H, but who would even think about including them in words like “thought”, “drought”, and even your sweet “daughter”? The unsuspecting novice would not use them in situations like this unless he was spelling “doghouse” or “bighead” which are actually two words put together. What about that dastardly duo when they flaunt themselves in words such as “rough”, “laugh” and “cough”? I don’t know how they get away with this , but they sound like F in those words!

Silent H is an “honorary” dude. I have written “enough” about him. I could “design” a “sign” about Silent G, or Silent E but for now I will not “write” anything about them. I am tempted to tell you about Silent D. I may do that on “Wednesday”. Silent B is interesting, but I “doubt” if you want to hear about this “subtle” scoundrel. And finally I “guess” I will “guard” against getting into Silent U’s background. I’m too exhausted to deal with this army of Silent offenders any longer. How did we ever learn to spell anything?