Why do many words have silent letters when even without them the word would sound the same, like ‘island’ and many others.

Question

I tried asking my English teacher back in school but even she did not have an answer.

In: 157

Answer 1

There’s a few reasons.

Sometimes it’s because they come from different languages that have different pronunciation rules. That’s why Americans don’t pronounce the h in herb, they’re borrowing the French pronunciation.

Sometimes it’s because the letter used to be pronounced but the pronunciation changed and the spelling didn’t. The k in knight used to be pronounced, so that’s why it’s spelled with a K.

And sometimes it’s just a regional dialect thing.