100+ Silent H words list and pictures

The letter H is silent in many English words. There are no hard rules we can apply to teach when it occurs, silent H words must be learned through practice and familiarity. There are however some letter combinations that can give us a hint that the H is unvoiced.

When H appears after G it is often silent. This doesn’t apply however in many 2 syllable words, and words that are compound nouns such as doghouse, egghead, and longhorn. Sometimes, the GH combination should be pronounced as an F sound like in the word cough.

In the consonant digraph of WH we nearly always just hear the W. With CH we often have a K sound (hard C), and when a word starts with RH we only pronounce the R.

Many words that the English language has adopted from French have a silent H. If the word is of French origin, there is a good chance H is not voiced.

Another thing to note is that the pronunciation of H is commonly omitted by native speakers in general speech. Known as connected speech, it isn’t technically correct but it is how people speak regardless. This occurs with words that start with H.

Some British dialects completely ignore the letter H where it is normally pronounced in words. They might say that the football was orrible (horrible) at alftime (halftime) or arry ated is aircut (Harry hated his haircut).

One final thing to remember is that when a word begins with a silent H, the article an should be used. For example – an hour, an heir.