10 English Words With Silent Letters You’ve Been Mispronouncing

English spelling lies to you more often than you’d think. A letter sits right there in the word, printed in black and white, and you’re not supposed to say it at all. Non-native speakers aren’t the only ones who get tripped up — plenty of native speakers mispronounce these words their whole lives without noticing. Here are ten of the worst offenders, grouped by the letter that goes silent, so you can fix all of them at once.

1. The silent “W”

In a small group of common words, “w” simply disappears. You’ll never hear it, no matter how slowly someone speaks.

• sword — /sɔːrd/, like “sord”
• answer — /ˈænsər/, like “anser”
• who — /huː/, like “hoo”
• two — /tuː/, like “too”

Say “sord,” “anser,” “hoo,” and “too” out loud a few times. It feels wrong at first precisely because the spelling is shouting at you to do otherwise.

2. The silent “B” after M

Whenever “b” follows “m” at the end of a word, it stops being pronounced. It’s a leftover from older spelling that English never bothered to clean up.

• comb — /koʊm/
• climb — /klaɪm/
• thumb — /θʌm/
• crumb — /krʌm/

The same rule applies the moment you add an ending: “climbing” and “combed” still drop the “b”.

3. The silent “K” before N

Any word that starts with “kn” drops the “k” completely — a pattern that confuses almost every learner the first time they see it written down.

• knife — /naɪf/
• know — /noʊ/
• knee — /niː/
• knock — /nɒk/

Once you know the pattern, you can predict it on sight: “knead,” “knit,” and “knob” all follow it too.

4. The silent “G” before N

The reverse combination, “gn,” also swallows its first letter — whether it sits at the start or the end of a word.

• sign — /saɪn/
• foreign — /ˈfɒrən/
• gnaw — /nɔː/
• design — /dɪˈzaɪn/

Careful with “sign” and “design,” though: the “g” comes back to life in related words like “signature” and “designate.”

5. The silent “H”

Most English words with “h” do pronounce it. But a handful of common ones, often borrowed from French, drop it entirely.

• honest — /ˈɒnɪst/
• hour — /aʊər/
• heir — /eər/
• honor — /ˈɒnər/

That’s why you say “an honest mistake,” not “a honest mistake” — the article follows the sound, not the spelling.