Unit 3. Silent letters ‘l’, ‘w’. Linguistic commentary on the unit.

1. Silent ‘l’.

Letter ‘l’ is silent in the following combinations:

1. -alf/-alv: calf, half, calves, halves, halfpenny, halfpence;

2. -alm: alms, almond, balm, calm, napalm, palm, psalm, qualm, salmon;

3. -a(u)lk: Ba(u)lk, ca(u)lk, chalk, stalk, talk, Fa(u)lk;

4. -olk: folk, yolk, Norfolk, Suffolk;

5. -oln: Lincoln/-olon: in the word colonel;

6. -olm: holm, Holmes, Stockholm.

Letter ‘l’ is also silent in inflected and derived forms of these words: talkative, balmy, Fa(u)lkner, etc.

Letter ‘l’ is silent in auxiliary and modal verbs: would, should, could.

NB! Letter ‘l’ is pronounced in milk, bulk, realm, Balkan, etc.

2. Silent ‘w’.

Letter ‘w’ is silent in the following combinations:

1. ‘wr-’: wrestle, wrinkle, wriggle, wrist, wright, wrap, wrench, wreck, wren, wry, write, wrong, wring, etc.;

2. ‘wh-’: who, whom, whose, whole, whoops, whore;

3. between a consonant and a vowel: two, two-pence, sword, answer, Greenwich, Norwich, Woolwich, Berwick, Warwick;

4. in all the inflected and derived forms of the words above.

NB! Letter ‘w’ together with one or several vowels can form a long vowel or a diphthong (it also means that this letter is silent in a way): awful, owl, ewer, shawl, howl, crowd, drowse, fowl, towel, news, shrewd, stew, sew, brow, etc.

Exercises.

Exercise 1. Guess the words.

1. A nut.

2. Money, clothes, food given to the poor.

3. Sweet smelling oil.

4. Non-woody part of a plant that supports a flower.

5. Yellow part of an egg.

6. People.

7. Feeling of doubt.

8. Sacred song or hymn.

9. Young of the domestic cow.

10. Still, quiet.

11. Large fish.

12. Small island.

13. Islands in the South Atlantic.

14. County in eastern England.

15. Capital of Sweden.

16. The main character in many stories by A. Conan Doyle.

17. President of the USA (1861-1865).

18. A novelist.

19. A British coin.

20. A person who writes psalms.

21. Fond of talking.

22. Soft and warm (about the air).

23. Having eyes that appear to slant upwards.

24. Childish love affair.

25. Traditional beliefs, tales of a community.

26. Portable two-way radio-set.

27. Evergreen oak.

28. A person who claims to feel a person’s future.

29. Brother by one parent only.

30. Situated at an equal distance from two places.

31. Located on the prime meridian.

32. County in Scotland on the North Sea.

33. County seat in Norfolk known for its cathedral (founded in 1096).

34. Suburb of London (on the bank of the Thames).

35. A town in Central England.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions.

1. What do they call an evergreen oak: a holm-oak or a home-oak?

2. Do you think he carves or calves statues out of wood?

3. Which of these is the name of weapons: alms or arms?

4. Which of these is the name of an army-officer: colonel or kernel?

5. Which of these is the name of oil: barm or balm?

6. Which of these is the name of a bird: stork or stalk?

Exercise 3. Some of these words have a silent ‘l’. Write them out. Look up the meaning of the words you don’t know in the dictionary.

Folk, palm, balk, bulk, realm, halves, calf, yolk, colonel, self, gulf, mulberry, calm, elk, salve, salvation, Lincoln, Psalter, alter, holm, psalm, chalk, altitude, stalk, shelter, salmon, talc, almanac, bilk, almond, napalm, Calvary, balm, halfpenny, qualms, falcon, paltry.

Exercise 4. Complete the sentences below using one of these words: answer, wrong, half-crown, arrows, lawyers, drowning, nowadays, sword, own.

1. When people agree with me I always feel that I must be ………. .

2. Wise men learn by other men’s mistakes; fools by their ………. .

3. A good archer is not known by his ………., but by his aim.

4. Better give a shilling than lend a ………. .

5. Few ………. die well, few physicians live well.

6. A ………. man will catch a straw.

7. ………. truth is the greatest news.

8. The pen is mightier than the ………. .

9. The shortest ………. is doing.

Exercise 5. Divide the words below into two columns: those with silent ‘h’ and those with silent ‘w’.

Wholesome, whisper, wharf, wheat, whip, whose, wheel, whoop, whoops, whiskers, wherever, whale.

Exercise 6. Choose correct spelling according to the definition.

1. To strike a blow: rap/wrap.

2. A long cry: hoop/whoop.

3. Frozen dew: hoar/whore.

4. Entirely: holy/wholly.

5. A twist: ring/wring.

6. A weapon: soared/sword.

7. Just: right/wright.

8. A bird: ren/wren.

9. Twisted to one side: rye/wry.

10. To defeat: hop/whop.

11. To be paid: due/dew.

12. Play-wright/-write.

13. Ground-floor/-flaw.

14. Key-whole/-hole.

15. Oars-/awes-man.

16. Blue-/blew-s.

17. Sword-/soared-fish.

18. Folk-lore/-law.

19. Jack-door/-daw.

20. Flower-/flour-bed.

21. Wry-/rye-ly.

Exercise 7. Unscramble the words.

Codrw, nrcow, wosrd, otewl, nwaers, swoehr, edmowa, wofler, awawrdk, ewlnirk, twrsele.

Exercise 8. Match the words from the left column with the words from the right column to make phrases.

awkward	food
shrewd	eyes
wry	face
wholesome	age
wild	bow
low	fowl
to strike	out of the difficulty
to elbow	a dress
to take	in one’s own juice
to turn	a blow
to iron out	with one’s problems
to sew	one’s way
to wriggle	a screw
to wrestle	wrinkles
to stew	a shower
fire	towel
dish	crew
ship’s	tower
dew	drop

Exercise 9. Choose the correct spelling.

1. He stood bewildered by the (w)hole affair.

2. I think, on the (w)hole, we bored him with the thing.

3. The child can’t (w)reckon yet.

4. The snake cra(w)led out of the (w)hole.

5. Spare me the s(w)ordid details of your love affairs.

6. Princes were judged according to their mastery of s(w)ord or of the bow.

7. He is (w)rapped up in his family.

8. She (w)rapped him over the knuckles.

9. The police finally succeeded in (w)ringing a confession from the prisoner.

10. (W)ring the to(w)el dry.

11. Puzzled, he blew out smoke (w)rings.

12. I wouldn’t give a (w)rap for it.

13. What are the (w)rights and (w)rongs of the case?

14. He got interested in their initiation (w)rites.

15. To (w)rite and read comes by nature, don’t you think so?

16. This talk with the play(w)right made them give up the scenery.

17. I have always said, the first (W)ig was the Devil.

18. The storm caused (w)recks all along the coast.

19. He (w)renched the handbag from the old woman.

20. The director had to ans(w)er to the stockholders for the loss.

21. There are shops (w)ithin easy reach of the house.

22. The (w)rye cost us a lot of money.

23. She gave a (w)ry smile.

24. They lead a (w)retched existence in the slums.