Letter 'b' is silent in 'plumber'. Letter 'b' is generally not pronounced if letters 'm' and 'b' occur together in a word. Examples : plumb, comb, tomb, plumber etc. This rule is applicable when letters 'm' and 'b' are the parts of the same syllable.
The letter B likes to silently follow the letter M at the end of many words, such as in dumb, plumb, crumb, thumb, numb, succumb, lamb, limb, climb, tomb, comb, bomb, and womb.
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, and for sewage and drainage in plumbing systems. Residential plumber at work.
The word plumber originates from the Old-French word plummier. As you can see, the loanword plummier has no b in it. The written b was added during the the renaissance when intellectuals realized that the French word was itself derived from the Latin plumbarius which has a b.
That is where the term 'Plumbing' originated, as 'Plumus' in Latin means Lead. These lead pipes also carried water to the Roman Baths, supplied with hot water, heated by wood and furnaces. These baths had elaborate steam rooms accomplished by pumping hot air through channels beneath the floors.
English speakers with dreams of moving up socially, then, also adopted and adapted this other language. So while a laborer working in lead might consider himself a lead-smith at home, to the wealthy upper class that hired him to work, he was a plomier — and eventually a plumber.
The letter ⟨k⟩ is normally silent (i.e. it does not reflect any sound) when it precedes an ⟨n⟩ at the beginning of a word, as in “knife”, and sometimes by extension in other positions.
In the word 'sandwich', if you looked that up in the dictionary, you WOULD see the D sound. But it's actually never pronounced that way. So Wednesday, Handsome: the dictionary says no D. But 'Sandwich', the dictionary does say D but it hasn't caught up with the actual habits of how we speak.
The letter O is silent in some words that pair it with fellow vowels E and U, such as people, jeopardy, leopard, rough, tough, enough, trouble, and double.
If an “L” is found towards the end of the word, before the letters “f,” “v”, “k” and “m,” but after the letter “a,” then it's usually silent (behalf, calve, walk, almond). In many of these instances, the silent L lengthens the previous vowel sound, which gives the slight impression of the “L” /l/ sound.
But as Merriam-Webster Dictionary points out, one unusual letter is never silent: the letter V. While it makes an appearance in words like quiver and vivid, you can rest assured it always behaves the exact same way.
What is the newest letter in the English alphabet?
“Z” may be the last letter in alphabetical order, but the last letter added to our alphabet was actually “J.” In the Roman alphabet, the English alphabet's father, “J” wasn't a letter. It was just a fancier way of writing the letter “I” called a swash.
Letter 'b' is silent in 'plumber'. Letter 'b' is generally not pronounced if letters 'm' and 'b' occur together in a word. Examples : plumb, comb, tomb, plumber etc. This rule is applicable when letters 'm' and 'b' are the parts of the same syllable.
B. Most silent b's come at the ends of words and just after m: bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, numb, plumb, thumb, tomb. Just when one starts to feel comfortable with the relative regularity of these, debt and subtle show up like a couple of toughs.
