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Now back to six minute vocabulary, six minute vocabulary from BBC Learning English. Hello and welcome to Six Minute Vocabulary. I'm Catherine, and I'm Rob. In today's show, we're going to look at a very important part of spoken and written vocabulary.

Silent letters. Yes, silent letters. We'll look at what they are, where they appear and how to say them. There'll be a quiz and we'll leave you with a top tip for learning vocabulary.

But first, let's listen to Nick.

He's the doctors. And it's not good news. No, it's not. While you listen, try and answer this question. What treatment does the doctor suggest for Nick?

Take a seat. What seems to be the problem? It's my wrist. It really hurts.

Let's see if we can work out what's wrong. Do you have a pain anywhere else? What about your elbows and knees?

No, they're fine. But I can't move my thumb and I don't know why.

Well, have you done anything physically demanding recently? I did play tennis yesterday.

You've probably just got a pulled muscle and you'll just have to rest your wrist. No playing tennis for a while, I'm afraid.

So we asked you, what treatment did the doctor suggest?

Vernick And the answer is he told Nick to rest his wrist.

He did. Well done. If you got that right now, wrist, that's a bit of your body that joins your arm to your hand is an example of the vocabulary area we're looking at today.

And that's words with silent letters, Rob. Yes, that's right.

We spell this word wrist r i. S t, but when we say it, we don't pronounce the first letter W were. Instead we start the sound from the second letter in the words, which is the letter R pronounced. OK, and let's listen to it again. It's my wrist.

It really hurts. There we are. We don't say were rest, we say wrist, wrist and some other words that start with a silent w r rob right.

That's w ah i t e like to write a letter and wrong w r o n g meaning not correct.

In fact, there's a rule here, which is we don't usually pronounce the W in words that begin W are. So Catherine, when did you last write a letter.

I wrote a letter on paper. I really don't know Rob, to be honest. It's all email for me now. Yes. Good idea with your handwriting.

Probably now next said another word with a silent letter, but I can't move my thumb and I don't know why the word was no meaning to recognize and understand something. It's spelt k n o w. But we don't say the letter K, so it isn't. No, but no, it's no. So that's another rule.

We don't usually say the K in words that begin with K and for example, knee the joint between your upper and lower leg. And Nayaf, the tool we use to cut things so knee and knife start with silent K.

Excellent. Right now Nic also said a word with a silent letter at the end. Yes.

He talked about a body part on your hand. You have four fingers and your thumb that sticks out the other way. That's thumb spelled t h u m b. But we don't pronounce the final B, we don't say thumb, but we say thumb, rob thumb.

We do. That's right.

Some other words with a silent B at the end are clim like to climb a ladder and slam a baby sheep. Hmm. Do you like lamb Catherine.

I do like lamb. I like lambs. Well when they're alive and I also have to say I quite like eating them. Oh right.

Oh six minutes coverage from BBC Learning English and it's time for a quiz.

Count the silent letters in these sentences. No.

One, there's something wrong with my wrist and the answer is to wrong and recite both the game with a silent W.

Very good sentence. Number two, I don't know why my thumb hurts and the answer is to again, no starts with a silent K and thumb ends with a silent B.

It does. And here's the last one. No, I can't climb up there because I've hurt my knee. Huh.

Well, Climb has a silent B at the end and knee starts with a silent K, but the word no at the beginning of a sentence is the opposite of yes. So it's spelt and OK. So the answer is there are two words with silent letters in this sentence and it's very well done to you if you got those right.

Now, that brings us almost to the end of today's program. And before we go, here's today's Top Tips for learning and recording vocabulary. When you learn a word and you know it's got a silent letter marked the silent letter very clearly in your vocabulary notebook.

That way you won't forget how to say it.

Thank you. I know what to do now.

Yeah, very good. There's more about this ABC Learning English dot com and join us again soon for more six minutes vocabulary.

Bye bye bye.