What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. The word 'cat' has three phonemes: c-a-t. Changing one phoneme changes the word, so swapping the first sound in 'cat' makes 'hat'. English has around 44 phonemes.

Examples

• cat has 3 phonemes: c, a, t.
• ship has 3 phonemes: sh, i, p.
• Changing one phoneme turns cat into hat.

Quick facts

• A phoneme is a sound you hear; a grapheme is how it is written.
• English has about 44 phonemes made from its 26 letters.