Silent Letters High-frequency Words

According to A Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English, these 23 words occur in the top 5000 most-frequent words in English. The silent consonant sound in each words is underlined.

Note that many words in the English language can fill more than one part of speech.

Silent letters
  word silent letter   part of speech frequency
1.wouldl verb44
2.couldl verb73
3.shouldl verb125
4.talkl verb169
5.walkl verb363
6.halfl adjective551
7.campaigng noun650
8.designg verb882
9.talkl noun931
10.climbb verb1588
11.doubtb noun1918
12.debtb noun1929
13.bombb noun1942
14.honorh noun2108
15.knockk verb2111
16.doubtb verb3006
17.corpsp and s noun3172
18.swordw noun4185
19.coupp noun4325
20.aisles noun4531
21.debutt noun4652
22.bombb verb4742
23.foreignerg noun4907

Davies, Mark, and Dee Gardner. A Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English. London: Routledge, 2010. Print.


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Pronuncian Lessons

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long e sound /i/
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