Deletion (phonology)

Deletion is when we take away a sound or a part of a word when we speak. Imagine you have a long name like Alexandra, and someone calls you Alex, they are technically deleting the last part of your name for it to be shorter and easier to say. This happens in language all the time, and it can change the way a word sounds or is spelled. Sometimes when we talk really fast, we don't pronounce all the sounds in a word, and that's because we're deleting some of them. It's like taking off a few pieces of a jigsaw puzzle before putting it together. Sometimes deleting a sound can even change the meaning of a word. For example, if we delete the 'k' sound at the beginning of the word 'knight', it becomes 'night', which means something different. So, deletion is when we don't say or write every sound or letter in a word because it makes it easier to pronounce or write.