Silent Letters - Phonics for Kids | Reading & Pronunciation | Kids Academy Silent letters to are the letters that appear in a word but are not pronounced. This seems a bit confusing for kids when they first learn silent letters but with a bit of practice and understanding, the concept would be easy to grasp. Some letters are a part of a word, but they do not add to the sound of it. They are silent. These silent letters make up for different pronunciation of a word. However, silent words also follow a pattern. For example: Consider the words: • Ghost • Honest • Hour In all these three words, ‘H’ remains silent, but did you see the pattern? Yes, ‘h’ before ‘o’ is silent. Similarly, in the words: • Knot • Knife • Knee The letter ‘k’ is silent. The pattern tells us that ‘k’ before ‘n’ is silent. Silent letter not only remain silent they can also change the pronunciation of a syllable, for example in words: • Fin • Fine ‘e’ is not pronounced in ‘fine’ but still, it changes the pro