You Don't Have to Say Every Letter

If you first met a lot of English vocabulary through katakana or careful reading, it's natural to want to give every letter its own sound. English doesn't reward that instinct, though — plenty of common words carry silent letters that simply don't get pronounced. 'Walk' has a silent L. 'Listen' has a silent T. 'Island' skips the S entirely. Saying these letters out loud doesn't just sound slightly off — it can make an otherwise familiar word harder for a native listener to recognize quickly. Try this small experiment: take 'walk,' 'listen,' and 'island,' and say each one twice — once pronouncing every letter, once the real way. Notice how much shorter and smoother the correct version feels. Keep a running list of silent-letter words as you encounter them in reading; over time, you'll start predicting which letters are decorative just from the shape of the word. This is a normal stage for careful, literate learners — and it fades with exposure.