Thread: Silent letters?

ЗлЪф

There can't be such a word in Russian, check the spelling.
There is a word эльф, which means elf. It is pronounced [el'f].

Originally Posted by Marcus

There can't be such a word in Russian, check the spelling.
There is a word эльф, which means elf. It is pronounced [el'f].

So it uses the э rather than the З? Aren't both of these a "Z" sound in English?

And yes, эльф meaning elf is exactly the word I'm looking for. Can you tell me why the first letter is silent?

Thank you.