The French language is famous for its silent letters, but English does not lag behind. Even the letter "l" is commonly silent. When it is part of the letter group alm, it only indicates that the vowel "a" is long:
calm, palm, balm – those similar-looking words are pronounced in a similar way.
psalm – notice that, just like in all other words beginning with "ps", the "p" is silent, too.
almond, salmon – there's something fishy about these words. The confusing thing is that the "m" is part of a different syllable (al-mond, sal-mon), but the "l" is still not pronounced.
One important exception to this rule is realm (pronounced like "relm"). I guess there is little certainty in the realm of English pronunciation.
Similarly, in the letter group alk, not only is the "l" not pronounced, but the pronunciation of the vowel "a" changes to "aw", too:
walk, chalk, talk – click on the words and listen to their pronunciations. Note, however, that there exist dialects in which the "l" is pronounced, but not in the standard ones.
stalk, balk – just a few more examples.
This transformation to "aw" occurs in many other words where the "l" is pronounced:
salt – it looks similar to the words above, but notice it's "alt", not "alk".
also, alternative, although – these words all sound as if they started with the word "all".
A notable set of exceptions (where the "a" remains unchanged) consists of words beginning with "alg":
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The third type of words in which the letter "l" is silent contains "alf" or "alv":
calf, half – notice that this applies both to the singular and the plural (calves, halves)
Jakub Marian