How can we pronounce worst?
Is the H silent in huge?
When people do it, they aren’t just randomly or lazily leaving off a sound. This “h“-dropping occurs in a specific environment—only in words that start with a “hyu.” If they drop it in huge, they also drop it in humor, humid, humiliation, humongous, and Hugh.
Is the L silent in calm?
The answer is the year 1066 and 2000 years of invasions, occupations, and political complexities that go far beyond “correctness.” “Calm” does, in fact, have a silent L because of 1066; however, in some regions it has a lightly pronounced L. Why? Because that’s how language works naturally over time.
Is the T silent in exactly?
In practice, yes it is virtually silent unless one makes a special effort to pronounce it. When we have a consonant cluster here /ktl/ one sound is often not heard. The linguistice term for it is “dissimilation”.