2 free silent letters worksheets - ESL Vault - Free Printable

Let’s solve the Silent Letter Maze step by step.

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🎯 Goal:

Start at “START” (top-left) and reach “FINISH” (bottom-right) by moving only horizontally or vertically, stepping only on words that contain a silent letter.

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## ✔ Step 1: Understand “Silent Letters”

A silent letter is a letter that appears in a word but is not pronounced. Common examples:

- k in *know, knife, knock*
- w in *write, wrong, wrist*
- b in *bomb, climb, thumb*
- h in *hour, honest, heir*
- g in *sign, design, foreign*
- p in *psychology, pneumonia*
- l in *walk, talk, calm*
- n in *autumn, hymn*

We’ll need to identify which words in the maze have at least one silent letter.

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## ✔ Step 2: Mark All Words with Silent Letters

Let’s go row by row and mark words that have silent letters:

Row 1:

- START → Start point — always valid.
- school → ‘c’ is silent? ✘ No. “school” = /skuːl/ — ‘c’ is pronounced as /k/.
- two → ‘w’ is silent! ✔
- know → ‘k’ is silent! ✔
- funny → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: START, two, know

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Row 2:

- pencil → ‘c’ is pronounced /s/, not silent ✘
- table → no silent letter ✘
- plant → no silent letter ✘
- salmon → ‘l’ is silent! ✔
- green → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: salmon

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Row 3:

- hour → ‘h’ is silent! ✔
- often → ‘t’ is often silent (in many accents) ✔
- science → no silent letter ✘
- kitchen → no silent letter ✘
- today → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: hour, often

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Row 4:

- bomb → ‘b’ is silent! ✔
- apple → no silent letter ✘
- helmet → no silent letter ✘
- football → no silent letter ✘
- shirts → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: bomb

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Row 5:

- wrote → ‘w’ is silent! ✔
- Monday → no silent letter ✘
- climb → ‘b’ is silent! ✔
- island → ‘s’ is silent! ✔
- match → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: wrote, climb, island

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Row 6:

- knock → ‘k’ is silent! ✔
- lunch → no silent letter ✘
- knee → ‘k’ is silent! ✔
- carrot → no silent letter ✘
- where → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: knock, knee

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Row 7:

- answer → ‘w’ is silent! ✔
- monkey → no silent letter ✘
- cupboard → ‘p’ is silent! ✔
- message → no silent letter ✘
- vegetable → no silent letter ✘

→ Valid: answer, cupboard

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Row 8:

- knife → ‘k’ is silent! ✔
- whale → ‘w’ is silent! ✔
- witch → no silent letter ✘
- fish → no silent letter ✘
- receipt → ‘p’ is silent! ✔

→ Valid: knife, whale, receipt

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Row 9:

- painter → no silent letter ✘
- number → no silent letter ✘
- triangle → no silent letter ✘
- book → no silent letter ✘
- FINISH → End point — always valid.

→ Valid: FINISH

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## ✔ Step 3: Find Path from START to FINISH

We can move horizontally or vertically only through cells with silent-letter words.

Let’s map possible moves.

Start at START (Row 1, Col 1)

From START, we can go right to two (Row 1, Col 3) — has silent 'w'

From two, we can go down to often (Row 3, Col 3) — has silent 't'

From often, down to climb (Row 5, Col 3) — has silent 'b'

From climb, right to island (Row 5, Col 4) — has silent 's'

From island, down to cupboard (Row 7, Col 4) — has silent 'p'

From cupboard, down to receipt (Row 8, Col 5) — has silent 'p'

From receipt, down to FINISH (Row 9, Col 5) — DONE!

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✔ Let’s write the path:

> START → two → often → climb → island → cupboard → receipt → FINISH

All these words have silent letters, and each move is horizontal or vertical.

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## 🧩 Alternative Paths?

There are other possible paths, but this one is clean and direct.

For example:

- START → know → salmon → ... might lead to dead ends.
- START → two → bomb → wrote → knock → answer → knife → whale → receipt → FINISH — also works!

But the first path is shortest and most straightforward.

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## ✔ Final Answer:

> Path: START → two → often → climb → island → cupboard → receipt → FINISH

Each word contains at least one silent letter, and all moves are horizontal or vertical.

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## 💡 Bonus Tip:
This activity helps learners recognize common silent letters in English spelling — great for ESL students or early readers!

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✔ Solved!