Silent letters in English

English is full of letters that are written but not said — a legacy of old spellings and borrowed words. Spanish has almost none of this (beyond the silent h), so it takes deliberate attention.

Teach them by pattern: silent k before n (knife, knee, know), silent b after m (climb, thumb, comb), silent h in a handful of common words (hour, honest, honour). Patterns make the list far shorter than it looks.