2015م - 1444هـ


The 44 Sounds (Phonemes) of English





A phoneme is a speech sound. It’s the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another.

Since sounds cannot be written, we use letters to represent or stand for the sounds. A grapheme is the

written representation (a letter or cluster of letters) of one sound. It is generally agreed that there are

approximately 44 sounds in English, with some variation dependent on accent and articulation. The 44 English

phonemes are represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet individually and in combination.

Phonics instruction involves teaching the relationship between sounds and the letters used to represent them.

There are hundreds of spelling alternatives that can be used to represent the 44 English phonemes. Only the

most common sound / letter relationships need to be taught explicitly.

The 44 English sounds can be divided into two major categories – consonants and vowels. A consonant

sound is one in which the air flow is cut off, either partially or completely, when the the International Phonetic Alphabet.