Why are half the letters in French not pronounced?

French has a lot of silent letters, which can make pronunciation and spelling frustrating for some one trying to learn French. The silent letters (usually the final consonant of words) make the words flow better in speech patterns, so they were developed and changed but written French did not change.

Many of the words in French could be just written with a few letters, but instead those silent letters are written because no change has been made to the writing systems over time.

English also has some silent letters in some words, especially when "gh" are together in a word. Examples are: bought, taught, though, enough and many others.