Silent Letters Teaching Resources

Teach students about silent letters and silent letter words this school year with printable and digital activities created by teachers for teachers like you!

Aligned with both the TEKS and the Common Core English curriculums, this collection of printable worksheets, reading center activities and more teacher resources was designed to help students spot tricky ghost letters hiding in words and help teachers build their lesson plans! Build your students' foundational reading and spelling skills with resources that have undergone careful and thorough review by an ELA teacher on the Teach Starter team!

Is this your first year teaching this core phonics concept? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including tips on teaching students how to spell and pronounce the tricky silent letter words they find as they read.

What Are Silent Letters? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Let's start with a definition that you can use when you're introducing your lesson!? Here's how our teacher team explains the meaning of silent letters to students:

Silent letters are letters that we find in words, but we don't actually pronounce them when we say the word. They silently hide in a word, and they affect how the word is spelled.

Why Are There Silent Letters?

Your students may ask you point-blank why there are silent letters, and we can't blame them. Silent letters can make both spelling and pronunciation challenging!

So it's helpful to have a few answers in your pocket to answer those frustrated young spellers:

The word hasn't always been an English word. The English language is full of words that we have borrowed from other languages. Some of those words we use every day, like kindergarten, which comes from German, or pizza, which comes from Italian. Because other languages use different spellings and pronunciations — and sometimes even use a different alphabet — there may be silent letters hiding in those borrowed words.
The word is a homophone. Words like "night" and "knight" or "in" and "inn" are homophones — words that sound the same but have very different meanings. The silent letters in homophones help us tell which word is which when we are reading!

What Are the Most Common Silent Letters?

One of the (many) tricky elements of silent letters is the fact that a letter may be silent in one word while it's pronounced in another word.

Vowels — While each of the vowels in the The letter e is the most common silent vowel in the English language.
Consonants — Although this a long list of consonants that are silent in certain words, the most common consonants that appear in words where they're not said out loud are the letters l, b, and g.

Breaking Down Silent Letter Words for Kids

More than half of the words in the English language can be labeled as "silent letter words," but what makes them particularly tricky for early readers is the fact that they can show up just about anywhere within a word!

They can also be found in all different parts of speech, including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

One key to helping kids spot these ghost letters is teaching them some of the more common irregular words where they will show up!

Words With a Silent Letter at the Beginning

Among the most challenging words for our students to spell and pronounce are those with a silent letter right at the beginning of the word!

For example, many words that begin with a "k" or a "w" start off with a letter that students should not say out loud.

Here are some of the more common examples of words with a silent letter at the beginning.

Knee
Know
Write
Wrist
Gnome
Hour

Words With a Silent E at the End

The letter "e" shows up at the end of thousands of words in English. Although sometimes the letter is said out loud, it is often pronounced and goes by a variety of names, including:

Silent E
Unpronounced E
Magic E
Final E

When an "e" appears at the end of a word, it will often affect the pronunciation, and not only because the "e" is silent. The magic e can affect a vowel that appears earlier in the word, creating a long vowel sound. It can also tell a "c" or "g" to make a soft sound.

Some examples of silent "e" words include:

Make
Fate
Ride
Race
Age
Bathe

Words With a Silent C

When the letter "c" appears after the letter "s," it will often be silent. The letter "c" is also typically silent when it appears before the letter "k." Some examples of silent "c" words include:

Muscle
Scissors
Science
Scent
Kick
Wreck (which also includes a silent "w!")

Words With Silent B

The letter "b" will often disappear when it appears at the end of words or if it is followed by the letter "t." Some examples of silent "b" words include:

Numb
Doubt
Thumb
Debt
Subtle
Comb

Silent P Words

The letter "p" can be silent at the start of a word, in the middle or near the end. It's often silent when an "n" or an "s" appears right after it. Some examples of silent "p" words include:

Psychic
Corps
Pneumonia
Receipt

Silent K Words

The letter "k" doesn't just make the letter "c" silent in some places. It also becomes silent itself in many words in the English language. The most common letter combination that silences the "k" is the "kn" combo.

Here are some examples of silent K words:

Know
Knee
Knuckle
Knead (which also has a silent "a!")

Silent W Words

The letter "w" is silent in many words, including most words where it appears in combination with the letter "r."

Examples of some words with a silent "w" include:

Wrinkle
Wreath
Sword
Two

Silent L Words

The letter "l" takes a walk when it appears before the letter "k" in a word, and if it appears towards the end of the word, before the letters “f,” “v” or “m,” (but after the letter “a”) then it's usually silent:

Walk
Talk
Could
Half

Silent G Words

When the letters "g" and "h" are paired together, they both become silent, and the "g" is not pronounced in a number of other places. For example, a "g" is often silent if it appears before the letter "n" in a word.

Examples of some words with a silent "g" include: