Silent Letters Sorting worksheet for spelling practice with words containing silent letters.

Let’s go through each word and figure out which letter is silent. Then we’ll put them in the right column.

We’re looking for words where one of these letters doesn’t make a sound: k, w, b, h, g, or c.

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Step 1: Look at each word and find the silent letter

- knight → “k” is silent (say it: “nite”) → Silent k
- knock → “k” is silent (“nock”) → Silent k
- scissors → “c” is silent? Wait — actually, both “c”s are pronounced? No — in “scissors”, the first “c” is silent? Actually, no — let’s think: “siz-zers”. The “c” after “s” is not really there… Hmm. Actually, “scissors” has a silent “c”? Let me check: S-C-I-S-S-O-R-S. You say “SIZ-zers”. So the “c” is silent! Yes → Silent c
Wait — but some people might argue. Let’s double-check later. For now, let’s keep going.

Actually, better to list all clearly:

Let’s go row by row from the list:

Row 1:
- knight → silent k
- knock → silent k
- scissors → silent c? Or is it silent s? No — you say “siz-zers”, so the “c” is not pronounced → silent c
- climb → silent b (“clime”)
- knife → silent k (“nife”)

Row 2:
- lamb → silent b (“lam”)
- what → silent h? No — “wot” — actually, “h” is silent? Wait — “what” is pronounced “wut” — so “h” is silent? But sometimes people say “hwat” — but in standard English, “h” is silent → Silent h? Wait — actually, in many accents, “wh” is pronounced as “w”, so “h” is silent → Silent h
But wait — let’s be careful. In “what”, the “h” is part of “wh”, and often the “h” is not sounded — so yes, silent h.
BUT — hold on! Some sources say “what” has a silent “h”, others say it’s just “w” sound. Let’s confirm with common teaching: In elementary phonics, “what” is usually taught as having a silent “h” because “wh” makes a /w/ sound. So → Silent h

Wait — I think I made a mistake. Let’s look up standard silent letter lists for kids.

Actually, let’s use a reliable method: Think about how the word is pronounced vs spelled.

Better approach: Go word by word and assign based on common knowledge.

Let me make a clean list:

Words with silent k:
- knight (k-n-i-g-h-t → “nite”)
- knock (k-n-o-c-k → “nock”)
- knife (k-n-i-f-e → “nife”)
- knee (k-n-e-e → “nee”)
- knit (k-n-i-t → “nit”)
- knot (k-n-o-t → “not”)

That’s 6 words.

Words with silent w:
- write (w-r-i-t-e → “rite”)
- wrap (w-r-a-p → “rap”)
- wrong (w-r-o-n-g → “rong”)
- wrist (w-r-i-s-t → “rist”)
- wreck (w-r-e-c-k → “reck”)
- wren (w-r-e-n → “ren”)

Also: whale? W-h-a-l-e → “wayl” — is “h” silent? Or is “wh” making a /w/ sound? In most modern English, “wh” = /w/, so “h” is silent → that would be silent h, not silent w.

Wait — important: “silent w” means the letter “w” itself is not pronounced.

In “write”, the “w” is not pronounced → silent w.

In “whale”, the “w” IS pronounced (as /w/), and the “h” is silent → so “whale” belongs under silent h.

Similarly, “what” → “w” is pronounced, “h” is silent → silent h.

So let’s correct:

Silent w: words where “w” is written but not said.

Examples:
- write → “rite” → silent w
- wrap → “rap” → silent w
- wrong → “rong” → silent w
- wrist → “rist” → silent w
- wreck → “reck” → silent w
- wren → “ren” → silent w

What about “sword”? S-w-o-r-d → “sord” — yes! “w” is silent → silent w

And “two”? Not in list.

So silent w: write, wrap, wrong, wrist, wreck, wren, sword → that’s 7? Let’s count from list.

From original list:

write, wrap, wrong, wrist, wreck, wren, sword → yes 7.

But let’s list all words again systematically.

Original word list (copying):

Column 1: knight, lamb, numb, knit, comb, bomb
Column 2: knock, what, write, wriggle, ghost, wren
Column 3: scissors, whale, wrap, knot, gnome, honest
Column 4: climb, muscle, wrong, wrist, crumb, hour
Column 5: knife, wreck, knee, right, sword, doubt

Now, go one by one:

1. knight → silent k
2. lamb → silent b
3. numb → silent b
4. knit → silent k
5. comb → silent b
6. bomb → silent b
7. knock → silent k
8. what → silent h (since “wh” = /w/, h not sounded)
9. write → silent w
10. wriggle → silent w? W-r-i-g-g-l-e → “riggle” — yes, “w” silent → silent w
11. ghost → silent h? G-h-o-s-t → “gost” — yes, “h” silent → silent h
12. wren → silent w
13. scissors → silent c? S-c-i-s-s-o-r-s → “siz-zers” — the “c” is not pronounced → silent c
14. whale → silent h (wh = /w/)
15. wrap → silent w
16. knot → silent k
17. gnome → silent g (g-n-o-m-e → “nome”)
18. honest → silent h (h-o-n-e-s-t → “onest”)
19. climb → silent b
20. muscle → silent c? M-u-s-c-l-e → “mus-sel” — the “c” is silent? Actually, in “muscle”, the “c” is not pronounced — yes, silent c
21. wrong → silent w
22. wrist → silent w
23. crumb → silent b
24. hour → silent h (h-o-u-r → “our”)
25. knife → silent k
26. wreck → silent w
27. knee → silent k
28. right → silent g? R-i-g-h-t → “rite” — yes, “g” and “h” are silent? Wait — “right” is pronounced /raɪt/, so both “g” and “h” are silent? But typically, we say the “gh” is silent, but in this worksheet, they have separate columns for silent g and silent h.

Problem: “right” — which silent letter do we choose? The “g” is silent, and the “h” is also silent. But the worksheet has only one column per word. We need to pick the main silent letter.

Looking at common classification: In “right”, the “gh” together is silent, but since the worksheet separates silent g and silent h, we should see which one is more appropriate.

Actually, in “right”, the “g” is part of “gh” which represents no sound, but historically, “g” is the consonant that’s silent. However, many resources classify “right” under silent “g”.

Similarly, “ghost” — “gh” is silent, but “h” is listed separately.

To avoid confusion, let’s check standard answers for such worksheets.

I recall that in many similar exercises:

- “right” goes under silent g
- “ghost” goes under silent h? Or silent g?

Wait — “ghost”: G-H-O-S-T. Pronounced “gost”. The “h” is silent, and the “g” is pronounced. So silent h.

“right”: R-I-G-H-T. Pronounced “rite”. The “g” and “h” are both silent, but the “g” is the letter that’s traditionally considered silent in “gh” digraph when it’s silent. However, in this context, since “silent g” column exists, and “g” is not pronounced, it should go there.

But let’s see other words.

“gnome” — silent g (g is not pronounced)

“muscle” — silent c (c is not pronounced)

“scissors” — silent c

“doubt” — silent b? D-o-u-b-t → “dout” — yes, “b” is silent → silent b

“crumb” — silent b

“comb” — silent b

“bomb” — silent b

“numb” — silent b

“lamb” — silent b

Now, “hour” — silent h

“honest” — silent h

“what” — silent h

“whale” — silent h

“ghost” — silent h? G is pronounced, h is not → silent h

“right” — if we say “g” is silent, then silent g. But let’s confirm pronunciation: /raɪt/ — no /g/ sound, no /h/ sound. But the “g” is the letter that’s supposed to be there but isn’t sounded. In many curricula, “right” is grouped under silent “g”.

Similarly, “knight” has silent “k” and silent “gh”, but we put it under silent k because “k” is the initial silent letter.

For consistency, we’ll assign based on the primary silent letter that’s not part of a digraph unless specified.

Let’s list all words with their silent letter:

- knight: k
- lamb: b
- numb: b
- knit: k
- comb: b
- bomb: b
- knock: k
- what: h (since wh = w, h silent)
- write: w
- wriggle: w
- ghost: h (g is pronounced, h is not)
- wren: w
- scissors: c (first c is silent)
- whale: h (wh = w, h silent)
- wrap: w
- knot: k
- gnome: g
- honest: h
- climb: b
- muscle: c (c is silent)
- wrong: w
- wrist: w
- crumb: b
- hour: h
- knife: k
- wreck: w
- knee: k
- right: g (since gh is silent, and g is the letter we consider silent; alternatively, some might say h, but I think g is standard for "right")
- sword: w (s-w-o-r-d → "sord", w silent)
- doubt: b (d-o-u-b-t → "dout", b silent)

Now, let’s group them.

Silent k: knight, knock, knit, knot, knife, knee → that’s 6

Silent w: write, wriggle, wren, wrap, wrong, wrist, wreck, sword → 8 words? Let's count: write, wriggle, wren, wrap, wrong, wrist, wreck, sword → yes 8

But earlier I thought 7, missed wriggle and sword.

Silent b: lamb, numb, comb, bomb, climb, crumb, doubt → 7 words? lamb, numb, comb, bomb, climb, crumb, doubt → yes 7

Silent h: what, ghost, whale, honest, hour → 5 words? what, ghost, whale, honest, hour → yes 5

Silent g: gnome, right → 2 words? gnome and right

Silent c: scissors, muscle → 2 words

Now, total words: let's count original list.

Original has 6 rows x 5 columns = 30 words.

My grouping:

Silent k: 6
Silent w: 8
Silent b: 7
Silent h: 5
Silent g: 2
Silent c: 2
Total: 6+8=14; +7=21; +5=26; +2=28; +2=30 → perfect.

Now, let's write them in order for each column.

Silent k: knight, knock, knit, knot, knife, knee
(Alphabetical or as given? Probably as given or any order, but let's list as we found)

Actually, for the answer, we can list them in the order they appear or alphabetically. Since the worksheet doesn't specify, we'll list them as we identified.

But to match the table, we need to fill the columns.

Final Answer:

Silent k: knight, knock, knit, knot, knife, knee
Silent w: write, wriggle, wren, wrap, wrong, wrist, wreck, sword
Silent b: lamb, numb, comb, bomb, climb, crumb, doubt
Silent h: what, ghost, whale, honest, hour
Silent g: gnome, right
Silent c: scissors, muscle

Wait, did I miss any?

"muscle" is silent c, yes.

"scissors" silent c.

"right" silent g.

"ghost" silent h — yes, because "g" is pronounced.

"what" silent h — yes.

All good.

Now, for the final answer, we present the sorted lists.

Final Answer:
Silent k: knight, knock, knit, knot, knife, knee
Silent w: write, wriggle, wren, wrap, wrong, wrist, wreck, sword
Silent b: lamb, numb, comb, bomb, climb, crumb, doubt
Silent h: what, ghost, whale, honest, hour
Silent g: gnome, right
Silent c: scissors, muscle