The silent letter t in debut, sachet, depot, chalet, rapport, ballet, bouquet, mortgage
Exploring words that are derived from the French language
Aside from knowing that the letter t is silent in words like:
apostle, fasten, listen /ˈlɪs.ən/ (no z in ‘listen’ biko), castle, pestle, hustle /ˈhʌs.əl/, wrestle, bustle, hasten, moisten, christen (and even Christmas) etc.
It is also important to note that many words in English that are derived from French (like depot /ˈdep.əʊ/, sachet /ˈsæʃ.eɪ/, rapport /ræpˈɔːr/, debut /ˈdeɪ.bju/, etc.) have a silent letter t. There’s a simple logic behind this. In French, the last consonants in many, many words are not pronounced.
Let’s do a pronunciation practice of these words…
sachet /ˈsæʃ.eɪ/, debut /ˈdeɪ.bju/, chalet /ˈʃæl.eɪ/, ballet /ˈbæl.eɪ/, rapport /ræpˈɔːr/, bouquet /buˈkeɪ/, depot /ˈdep.əʊ/, mortgage /ˈmɔː.ɡɪdʒ/
Yours in English,
Francis