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  • Hey, this is Bill.

  • And I've got a nice basic English video for you here today.

  • Now, I'm going to talk to you about silent ‘e’.

  • Now, a silent letter is a letter  in a word that we don't say.

  • It's just there. We write the word

  • We write the letter. But when we read the word,  

  • we don't say that letter. Now silent ‘e’, kind of a tricky one here

  • And I've got some examples to help you. Now, if you can remember your vowels:  

  • a, e, I, o , u

  • Now each vowel has two different sounds.

  • The short sound and the long sound. Well, silent ‘e’ is the letter ‘e’  

  • that comes at the end of a word. But we don't say the ‘e’. 

  • The ‘e’ is just there to change the vowel sound

  • Let's take a look here and I'll show you. All right, now, I have this first word here

  • plan Okay, that's like ‘I have a plan for tomorrow’. 

  • Okay, so we know that a plan you make a plan, then if I do this

  • now it's notplanee’, no. Now it becomes, before it was short ‘a’, plan,  

  • now, long ‘a’, ‘plane’. Okay like an airplane, all right

  • Look at the plane in the sky. Not plane

  • Now, it's long ‘a’, ‘plane’. Okay

  • Next thing going down here. We know this this is a man's name, ‘Tim’. 

  • Maybe you have a friend named Tim. Okay, but, and again, that is sound,  

  • that's short ‘i’. But if we go ahead,  

  • and if we put silent ‘e’ there, that means nowtime’. 

  • Okay. What time is it

  • Alright. NotTimee’. 

  • Again, silent ‘e’. Don't say it

  • But now you have the long ‘i' sound, ‘time’. Alright

  • If you remember, ‘plan’  had the ‘a’ with short ‘a'. 

  • So doescapwith the /æ/ sound. Alright

  • So if we havecapright now, let's go ahead and makecape’. 

  • Alright. Now, we go to long ‘a’ with thecapesound

  • Alright. Keep it going here

  • hopThat's short vowel ‘o’. 

  • The /ɒ/ sound. Alright

  • So we havehop’. I just did one

  • Alright. Now afterhop’, we put short ‘e’. 

  • Don't sayhoppee’. We sayhope’. 

  • It's like ‘I hope it does not rain tomorrow  because I'm going to the baseball game.’ 

  • Things like that. Alright

  • Before it washopnowhope’  with the long vowel ‘o’ sound

  • All right. Coming up here,  

  • we haven't done one with ‘u’ yet. Now long ‘u’, it's a little strange

  • It's /u/ okay. But more on that

  • so here's short ‘u’, ‘tub’. The short vowel ‘u’. 

  • Alright. Fromtub’, we put silent ‘e’. 

  • Again, nottubee’, we saytube’. Alright

  • ‘A tube of toothpaste.’ Okay

  • Goes fromtubtotube’. But still I'm not saying silent ‘e’. 

  • Alright. After that we come down tobit’. 

  • bitmeans a small piece. You know, ‘Can I have a bit of your bread?’ 

  • Well that's ‘bit’. Again, same as Tim

  • We have the /ɪ/, short vowel ‘I’. So again, silent ‘e’ comes in

  • bitenotbitee’. ‘bite’ 

  • Going on there

  • Now, you're probably getting a good idea  of it, so I just got two more for you

  • Again, here. You know, remember, /ʌ/. The short vowel ‘u’. 

  • /ʌ/ /ʌ/ 

  • /ʌ/ Well, here iscut’. 

  • Well, we gocut’ - nowcute’. Okay, we havecute’. 

  • Ah, look at the cute puppy.” Alright

  • And now, last one here. I've gotrip’. 

  • When you don't have scissors. All right

  • Well there's ‘ripand then there's ‘ripe’. Long vowel /eɪ/ with the silent ‘e’. 

  • So listen to me as I say these. We've got plane, time,  

  • cape, hope, tube, bite, cute, and ripe. Never did I say the ‘e’ because it's silent

  • It's just there to make a long vowel. Okay. I hope that was helpful

  • And I hope I see you again soon. Thank you very much.

  • Hi, this is Bill. And right now I have a very  

  • simple pronunciation video to go through with you. Now, sometimes in English, we have silent letters

  • Now, these are letters that appear in a word  but we don't say them when we read that word

  • so it can be a little difficult when  you're trying to listen or read

  • And I'm just going to  explain this one idea to you

  • And that is ‘k’ before ‘n’  at the beginning of a word

  • Now, you can see all the examples behind me

  • But of course, in this case, if you  see KN at the beginning of a word

  • you do not say the ‘K’ sound. Okay

  • Just forget the K's there. Well don't forget ,but ignore it

  • Okay. Don't make that sound

  • So our first one here. This word is not ‘K-now’. 

  • Alright. That's horrible right there

  • What you want to do is, you  just want to thinkno’. 

  • And you should know this is like,  “I know how to speak English.” 

  • Alright. These are the things youknowhow to d. 

  • It's not ‘k-now’. We just know

  • I know how to do things. Alright

  • And then down toknowledge’. Alright

  • Again, no ‘K’ sound. We haveknowledge’. 

  • Now, ‘knowledgeis all the things you know. If you have a lot of knowledge, you're a very  

  • smart person. Alright

  • Stupid people, they have no knowledge. Okay

  • Or maybe you just don't  know about a certain topic

  • It's like I have no knowledge  about the Chinese language

  • That's a true thing. I don't know anything

  • All right. Next, we haveknight’. 

  • Now, this is notnight time’, like  “Oh day is finished. It's night time.” 

  • Now, if there's a ‘K’ here, this  is like the old style in England

  • Like King Arthur and his knights. And they wear the armor and fight with swords.  

  • That sort of thing. That's what that night means

  • We also have this one here. ‘knew’ 

  • Okay Now, ‘knewis just the past tense ofknow’. 

  • It's okay, likeMany years  ago, I knew someone named Paul.” 

  • Alright. That was in the past

  • I don't know him anymore but  I knew him many years ago

  • All right. We also haveknee’. 

  • That's a, that one right there. Okay

  • It's like that middle part of  your leg, where your leg bends

  • That's theknee’. Again, not ‘k-nee'. 

  • Remember that. Now, ‘kneel’. 

  • Very similar toknee’. Just plus an ‘L’. 

  • Nowkneel’. It's now sometimes people sit down on a chair

  • but then kneel just means  to go down on your knees

  • Okay. Probably because you don't have a chair

  • So you have to kneel on the floor. Down on your knees

  • Okay. Another one, ‘knife’. 

  • Very simple. You have to cut something

  • knifeOkay

  • If you ever cook food or prepare food you  might need a knife to cut your vegetables

  • So remember, not ‘K-nife’, justknife’. After that, another example isknit’. 

  • Okay. You know if you have a  

  • handmade scarf or maybe a handmade  sweater that means you knit the scarf

  • Okay. It's the old style - making a scarf

  • You knit the scarf - handmade style. Alright

  • Then there's ‘knob’. All right

  • Nowknobis on some doors. Some doors have a handle,  

  • but some doors have a knob. And this is you grab it and just turn it

  • It's almost like a ball shape. Grab the knob. Turn the knob

  • It's good thing. All right

  • Also for a door, you haveknock’. This isknock knock’. 

  • Anybody home? Alright

  • You're going to visit your friend. Don't just open the door

  • Well maybe but it's polite - knock knock. Then someone will come and open the door for you

  • Okay. Then, we also haveknot’. 

  • Okay. Now, this isn't like, “I am NOT going home.” 

  • No. with a ‘k', ‘knotis kind of like  

  • when you tie something like your shoes. Okay

  • You take your shoe strings and you tie them into  a knot so that they don't fall down, fall apart

  • Okay. Tie your shoes in a knot

  • All right. And then down here we haveknuckle’. 

  • All right. ‘knuckle’ 

  • Kind of like howkneeis on your  leg, a ‘knuckleis on your finger

  • All right. Right there where your fingers bend

  • Those are my knuckles. All right

  • So as you can see here, there's many words. There's more than these, but these are just  

  • 12 of these words, where it starts with  

  • ‘K’ but we can't say the ‘K’. Well can't? We just don't say the  

  • ‘K’ orit's you're going to look silly. I hope that helps you and I hope you can  

  • remember it. Thank you.

  • Hi. This is Bill. And I'm here to help you with some pronunciation

  • Okay. Sometimes in English, we have  

  • words that have letters we don't pronounce. We call them silent letters

  • And, well, right here, I'm going to tell you  about how the letter P can sometimes be silent

  • Now, this happens when the word begins with  the letter P but then it is followed by another  

  • consonant. Now, this is when we ignore the letter  P and we do not actually pronounce that letter

  • It is only silent. So let's look right here

  • What I have in this word ,PN begins the  word, but I'm not going to saypu-neumonia’. 

  • Okay. The P is silent

  • So all I'm going to say ispneumonia’. Okay

  • Andpneumoniais a sickness  that you get in your lungs

  • That you knowwhen you're  breathing, you can get sick

  • It's more common in the wintertime. And it's kind of serious

  • So if you do have pneumonia, I hope you're  seeing a doctor, getting help for that

  • But please, the help I can give  you is don't say, “pu-neumonia.” 

  • Just say, “pneumoniaAnd remember it's a lung sickness

  • When you're breathing, it's  kind of like all right here

  • Okay. Now, the next one here

  • It's not ‘P-salm’. All right

  • Now, this, we just saypsalm’. Now, ‘psalmis, it's a part of the Bible