What term refers to sequences in words where letters are written but not pronounced, such as the 'k' in knight?

• A. Silent letter patterns
• B. Graphemes
• C. Phonemes
• D. Orthographic mapping

Answer: (A)

This focuses on letters in spelling that aren’t pronounced. In knight, the k is written but not spoken, a classic example of a silent letter. The phrase silent letter patterns points to these common spellings where letters appear but don’t produce a sound in certain words or contexts. This helps readers decode and spell by recognizing when a letter is silent. The other terms describe different ideas: graphemes are written symbols that can map to sounds (not all graphemes are silent), phonemes are the sounds themselves, and orthographic mapping is the process of linking sounds to letters for decoding. So the best fit for the behavior of letters written but not pronounced is silent letter patterns.