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 sound is produced.In
contrast,a vowel sound is one in which the air flow is unobstructed when the sound is made.The vowel
sounds are the music,or movement,of our language.The 44 phonemes represented below are in line with
the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Consonants
Sound
Common
Spelling alternatives
spelling
/b/
b
bb
ball
ribbon
/d/
d
dd
ed
dog
add
filled
F/
f
w
仟
ph
gh
If
ft
fan
cliff
phone
laugh
calf
often
1g/
99
gh
gu
gue
grapes
egg
ghost
guest
catalogue
/h/
h
wh
hat
who
//
j
ge
dge
di
99
jellyfish
cage
giraffe
edge
soldier
exaggerat
e
/k/
k
C
ch
CC
k
qu
kite
cat
christmas
acclaim
folk
bouquet
q(u)
ck
X
queen
back
box
W
leaf
spell
/m/
m
mm
mb
mn
Im
monkey
summer
climb
autumn
palm
/n/
n
nn
kn
gn
pn
nest
funny
knight
gnat
pneumonia
/ng/
ng
n
ngue
ring
sink
tongue