I learnt how to read and write and spell when I was a little child. Back then there were too many spell tests, it seems almost every adult wanted to test out spelling abilities, and I always came out on top.
I remember adults thinking they could get me by asking me to spell words that had silent letters. They'd be like, spell "pneumonia" or "island", or "gmelina".
I think I lost only the first time but after then all the adults I met who thought they had words I couldn't spell had to eat their words.
I have a friend with a strange surname from some African language, the name is "Buter", but he always reminds us it has just one "t" so it is not "butter". He also tells us the "r" is silent so we should pronounce it as "boo-tay", stressing the last syllable not the first like in "booty".
This dude has been through hell explaining his surname every time, cos there are so many rules.
Now, why is there a letter in a word of that letter is silent? Just to give the word a distinct identity? Why does the word have to go that far to get a distinct identity? Are there other similar words rivalling it? There aren't!
Pneumonia, Gmelina, don't have rival words that sound similar necessitating a extra steps to get a distinct identity, so what was the need?
Definitely none!
What I always say is all words have all 26 letters of the alphabet but you don't see all 26 letters because most of them are silent. Because they're silent they weren't brought into the word's spelling.
You get it?
"Get" is a 26 letter word but it has only 3 letters because the other 23 are silent. Because they're silent they're not included in the spelling of the word "get", only the three letters (get) that are not silent are brought into the spelling. Capiche?
That's how spellings should be looked at.
The End
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The silent letters are a nuisance.
They are like the participant of the group project who don't contribute anything. ZERO contribution.
😅
I mean, their only task is to make things even more difficult.
I had troubles with words like during my school days all the letters were addressed to the Principle.
And I am better now but still there are words that haunts me and I completely avoid using it.
Hahahah. Yeah, such a nuisance.
For people learning English the silent letters cause a lot of trouble!
I can imagine, must be hell 😅
Well u are right, still many of the big relatives still check me out and my spell words i don't whats the reason behind this.