Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy and this is our 171st episode. I talked about silent letters back in episode 156, but I want to revisit the topic today

because one of my students recently had trouble with the silent L in the word salmon.

The word salmon is spelled S-A-L-M-O-N, but is pronounced S-A-L-M-O-N, but is pronounced salmon.

Small pronunciation errors like saying a silent letter are usually passed over by listeners.

Saying a letter that should be silent doesn't usually interfere with communication, so it's not really a very big deal.

Unfortunately for my student though, her error happened at exactly the wrong time.

You see, my hard practicing student had just told her boss that she is taking English pronunciation

lessons. To show her boss what she had learned when the two of them went to lunch later that day,

she ordered the Salmon. She wanted to demonstrate how nice and clear her L sound had become since taking lessons.

Unfortunately, she did say the L sound perfectly and was then told by her boss that the L is silent in the word salmon.

Now, the word salmon isn't a very high frequency word, so I don't usually cover it in class

with my students.

However, this isn't the first time that one of my students has had a very notable experience

when pronouncing the L in that word.

So today, as a public service announcement to all of you who enjoy ordering

salmon off the menu at restaurants, I'm going to tell you, do not say the L sound in the word

salmon. This isn't just an American thing either. The Cambridge Dictionary's online website does not

include an L sound for the British pronunciation either. Since many of you don't live where salmon

is as common of a food as it is here in the Pacific Northwest, I thought I'd review other words, high frequency and not, that have a

silent L. First, let's talk about words that are high frequency. I'm taking these words directly

from the free pronunciation lesson that lists the high frequency words that have silent letters.

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