In English, the silent letters often wreak havoc with pronunciation. Silent bs can be particularly problematic:
- debt
- subtle
- dumb
- comb
- tomb
- thumb
- bomb, bomber, bombing, bombs – most problematic for Swedish speakers since Swedish has the word ‘bomb’ and most Swedish teachers of English teach bomb with the second b pronounced.
Another small obstacle is that English words with two sets of ts can often also be difficult
- negotiation
- consultative
- competitive
- competitiveness
- administrative
- adaptation
- forestation
- deforestation
- reforestation
- adaptation
- reputation