The Verbal Image Blog, from Business Speech Improvement

Silent letters in American English pronunciation Many readers of this blog come from other countries. If you are one of them, or know someone who is trying to speak English more clearly, this blog post is for you! American English, first of all, is pronounced differently than British English. Many of the vowel sounds are made slightly differently, and have a different intonation pattern as well, which is what gives it a British or an American sound. This blog is about American English. We have a lot of silent letters. In some cases, the letters are silent only in specific words. For example, "th" is written but not spoken in 5 words. One of these words is "asthma". When "l" comes after an "a", as in calm, walk, talk, and psalms, the "l" is not spoken either. A third example is when there is a "sch", as in school or schedule. In these cases, Americans pronounce this as a "sk" sound. Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals. Training is offered through open enrollment seminars, individual coaching, e-books and an mp3-file.