Non-pronounced letters

Question

How do we call those non-pronounced letters appearing at words such as: know, doubt, mnemonic?

Actually, why are they written as they have no pronunciation while reading?

I believe there was a time people pronounced the full word, stressing the k, b and m.

Maybe it's because time has changed, and we live in a modern world which can't handle saying those antique, fully-pronounced words.

What's your opinion?

Thanks

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

AnonymousHow do we call those non-pronounced letters

Silent. hope has a silent e. know has a silent k. And so on.

You are correct to assume that the reason is historical. The pronunciation of words slowly changes from one century to another, but books are already published, and I suppose nobody wants to go back and reprint the millions of books that have already been written, and teach everybody the new spellings, so we keep the spellings the same as they have always been. You can find some really old books where older spellings are used, however. That was before spelling became standardized.

CJ

Non-pronounced letters

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