Ages 9–10📖 EnglishBeing planted

Silent Letters in Words

Spell words containing silent letters that are remnants of earlier pronunciation or etymology, recognising common silent-letter patterns and using word origins to remember them

A first look

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Question 1 of 3

Which of the following words is spelled correctly, showing the silent letters in the word?

Question 2 of 3

Which of the following words is spelled correctly, showing the silent letters at the beginning and in the middle?

Question 3 of 3

Which word is spelled correctly and includes a silent letter?

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What a child can do after this Skill

Identify and spell words with silent initial consonants: knight, know, write, wrap, gnaw, psalm, applying knowledge that these letters were once pronounced
Spell words with silent internal letters: doubt (b), island (s), muscle (c), solemn (n), using etymological connections to aid memory (e.g. doubt from Latin dubitare)
Use word families and etymology to remember silent letters, e.g. sign is related to signal where the g is pronounced

Curriculum standards this Skill teaches

Eng_App1_Sp_Y56_10 — Words with ‘silent’ letters
Eng.UKS2.Write.Trans.Spell.2 — Spell silent letters

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Skill names and descriptions include the Marble Skill Taxonomy © Generative Spark, Inc. (withmarble.com), licensed under ODbL 1.0 (database) and CC BY-SA 4.0 (content). Practice questions are GlowGrades's own, each checked by independent verifiers that must agree before a child ever sees it.