Silent letters can be tricky to grasp for young students. One way of introducing them to students is to show that those letters aren’t always silent. They can be heard in similar words. For example, the g in sign is silent, but it is not in signal. If students can make the connection, it can help them remember how to spell the word with the silent letter. Assuring students that there are not infinite possibilities of silent letters can also help those with spelling woes. For example, if a word begins with the /n/ sound, but not the letter n, then there are three possibilities of spellings: gn, kn, and pn. Since pn words are commonly medical terms such as, pneumonia, students will likely not encounter words beginning with a silent p.

As for words that begin with a silent g, there are a few common possibilities: gnome, gnat, gnu, gnarl, gnash, and gnaw (and their extensions e.g., gnarly, etc). There are however, over 200 words that begin with a silent k. Some examples are: knack, knife, knight, knob, etc. Once students are comfortable with silent letters at the beginning of words, they can move onto silent letters in the middle.