Which statement about phonemes is true?

Which statement about phonemes is true?

• A. They are the largest units of sound.
• B. They are the letters that represent words.
• C. They are the punctuation marks used in writing.
• D. They are the smallest units of sound that distinguish meaning.

Answer: (D)

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that can change meaning in a language. Because of this, swapping one phoneme for another in a word typically makes a different word with a different meaning—for example, changing the initial sound in “bat” from /b/ to /p/ yields “pat.” Phonemes are abstract sound categories, not the actual letters we write or how we punctuate text, and they aren’t the largest units of sound like syllables. The same phoneme can be written with different letters in different words (and spoken with slightly different actual sounds depending on context), but those variations don’t change the phoneme’s identity.

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that can change meaning in a language. Because of this, swapping one phoneme for another in a word typically makes a different word with a different meaning—for example, changing the initial sound in “bat” from /b/ to /p/ yields “pat.” Phonemes are abstract sound categories, not the actual letters we write or how we punctuate text, and they aren’t the largest units of sound like syllables. The same phoneme can be written with different letters in different words (and spoken with slightly different actual sounds depending on context), but those variations don’t change the phoneme’s identity.