What are phonemes?

• A. Bits of sound used to make up words
• B. Rules governing sentence structure
• C. The study of meaning
• D. The meaning of words

Answer: (A)

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language. They’re abstract categories of sound, not the letters themselves, and they’re used to build words—changing one phoneme in a word often changes its meaning. For example, swapping the phoneme /p/ for /b/ in a word like “pat” vs. “bat” changes the word’s meaning, showing how phonemes function as meaningful sound units. The other options point to aspects of language—how sentences are structured (syntax) or how meaning is conveyed (semantics)—not the basic sound units that form words.