A selection of English ESL silent printables

Silent Letters. Silent K. Pronunciation drill. Suitable for A1 to B1 level students. This short activity can serve as a break from more complex topics and tasks. 

Silent Letters - K

Silent Letters. Silent L. Pronunciation drill. Suitable for A1 to B1 level students. This short activity can serve as a break from more complex topics and tasks. 

Silent Letters - L

An exercise to evaluate students' reading and understanding the use of silent letters in English word formations.  Some of the words used in this exercise are in gibberish, and have no meaning in English; they are used here only for the purpose of sounding in-line with the correct words.  This also checks the students' spelling abilities, and their accuracy in reading.  Mostly, this exercise comes to ensure the students' familiarity with silent letters in the English language, AFTER they have already gone over the topic learned the vocabulary. 

English Silent Letters Excercise

Students practice reading aloud the sentences given. In each of the sentences given there are some letters that are are pronounced silently. While student A reads, student B checks whether those letters are pronounced silently or not. (Those letters are indicated in parantheses in student B's card) Then, students switch roles. 

silent letters pronunciation activity

This sheet can be used to teach ESL learners about some common cases of silent letters.

Each case is explained in a simple manner followed by examples.

The sheet includes cases like ( kn/wr/mb/ bt/ mn/ wh/ gn)

Common silent letters cases

This activity was created for younger students as it is a draw, cut and glue activity to exercise fine motor skills, and pronunciation practice for the silent letter 'b'. You may want to play Quizlet Live to ensure students understand the vocabulary: https://quizlet.com/_c1daqg?x=1jqt&i=ut97h

Silent 'b' Cube Activity

Practise first steps in complex sounds, just after the letter sounds and before introducing phonics to your students. This wordlist trains pronouncing the RH (withouth the H) sound. 

Silent H, -rh Wordlist

Practise reading words, containing the silent B with this fun wordlist!
It's very important to practise sounds, as a first step, before teaching phonics. Hope you find it helpful =)


Silent B -mb , -bt Wordlist

This is a silent letter pronunciation worksheet. Remembering to NOT pronounce some letters can be very hard to do. 

It is for advanced and adult students, with lots of written and grammar skills, but can easily be adapted for your students' levels.

The first pages are using the silence of butterfly wings as a tool for remembering the different silent letters. There are butterflies all over the worksheet. 

In the past, I have found that just by saying "remember the butterflies" my students connect to their memories and it is easier for them to recall the right pronunciation.

For those of you that do not use mnemonic tecniques in your class, I have included a "straight" version in the last pages of this upload. They are the same as the first, but without the butterflies. Just print what you need.

As for the vocabulary columns, the pronunciation is based on Spanish students, so you may want to change that to fit your students' particular language of origin.

This is a worksheet that requires the teacher's full attention, as he/she must listen and correct pronunciation. 

SILENT LETTERS  with and without mnemonics

Two texts and use of English activities, one is about the creation of one of the most popular Christmas carols 'Silent Night', the other one is about the Christmas Truce.  Lyrics activity, that can be used as warm-up. 

CHRISTMAS Truce, Silent Night, use of English, lyrics

Reading Comprehension activity that I use with my intermediate level students.  This worksheet can cover a whole range of skills: reading, spelling, writing.  It can also be a good pronunciation skill practice, by assigning students to take turns reading couple of sentences as an alternative to silent individual reading.  

My House

A fun listening comprehension activity to Justin Bieber's Love Yourself for lower levels of English. As students listen to the song, they must fill in the spaces with the correct words. Another part requires students to put the chorus in the correct order. Goes over American colloquialisms such as "wanna" and the silent g in some words ending in -ing. 

Love Yourself Justin Bieber Gap Fill

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

55 Silent English ESL worksheets pdf & doc