Hi birdeen's call
You are the kindest person I have ever seen! You taught me a lot for the English pronounciation which I have been confused for many years.
This is very flattering. Thank you.
Based on our own judgement, if I divide the words with ending sound or no ending sound as follows: -
1. No ending sound: a,c,e,h,i, j,o,q,u,v,w,y
2. With ending sound: b (except mb),d,f,g,k,l,m,n,p,r,s,t,x
Am I correct in most cases? I understand that there are some exceptions.
It's difficult for me to answer this question. I'm not sure I understand it correctly. Do you mean that words that end in one of these letters:
a, c, e, h, i, j,o, q, u, v, w, y
usually have them silent?
Let's see. These letters are quite rarely the final letters of words (except "c", "e" and "y") in English. Let's take a look at "a", "c", "e" and "h".
a
The simplest word that ends in "a" is simply "a" -- the article. Of course, the letter "a" isn't silent here. Otherwise the whole word would be silent! It's pronounced /ə/ or /eɪ/.
The word "fora" ends in "a". It's pronounced /fɔːrə/. The letter "a" isn't silent. It's pronounced /ə/.
The word "visa" ends in "a". It's pronouced /viːzə/. The letter "a" isn't silent. It's pronounced /ə/.
I can't find any word in which "a" would be the final letter and it would be silent. But it doesn't mean such a word doesn't exist.
c
Most words that end in "c" are these with the suffix "-ic". For example, "basic", "forensic", "economic". "c" is not silent in these (unless there are exceptions that I don't know). It's pronounced /k/.
There are some other words in English that end in "c". For example, "franc". This word is pronounced /fræŋk/, so "c" isn't silent. It's pronounced /k/. Some people will pronounce "franc" in the French way, that is /frɑ̃/. "c" is silent in this prononciation, but it's a rare pronunciation.
I think we can safely say that "c" is very rarely silent when it's the final letter of a word.
eMany English words end in "e" and it's very often silent then. We have "come" (/kʌm/), "some" (/sʌm/), "home" (/həʊm/) and "borne" (/bɔːn/). "e" is silent in all of these.
When a word ends in double "e", the double "e" is usually pronounced /i:/. We have "employee", "donee", "coffee"
Some words ending in "e" came to English directly from French. Some of these are often written with original French accents. For example, "née" (/niː/ or /neɪ/), "fiancé" (/fɪˈɒnseɪ/), "café" (/kæfeɪ/). As you see "e", "ée" and "é" aren't silent here.
The word "technique" comes directly from French, but "e" is silent here. The word is pronounced /tɛkˈniːk/.
It's impossible to discuss all possibilities here. As you can see it's extremely complicated.
h
Most words in English that end in "h" are those which end in "ch", "sh", "tch", "gh" and "sch". It doesn't make sense to discuss whether "h" is silent in these words or not. These are so called
digraphs and
trigraphs. It doesn't make sense to consider every letter separately in these strings.
Few other words in English end in "h". For example, "rajah" is pronounced /rɑːdʒə/. "h" is silent in this word.
You can see that this is very complicated. If you create simple rules for yourself, you will be confused when you encounter exceptions. English is a mix of three main languages with many additions from numerous others. Different rules from different languages mixed together and there has never been anyone who would regulate it. This is why English is so irregular.