Have you ever wondered why the ‘b’ is silent in some English words? You know, words like:
· Comb · Thumb · Bomb · Plumber · Crumb · Numb · Dumb · Lamb · Debt · Tomb · Climb
It turns out that centuries ago, we did pronounce the b-sound in these, until sometime around the year 1300.
Interestingly, that silent ‘b’ tells us to elongate a word’s vowel sound. So, when we say ‘tomb’, we pronounce it like ‘too-m’ and not ‘to-m’.
Would you like to know more about silent letters?
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