What are the smallest units of sound in spoken language that distinguish one word from another?

• A. Phonemes
• B. Graphemes
• C. Diphthongs
• D. Vowel team

Answer: (A)

Phonemes are the smallest sound units in spoken language that can change a word’s meaning. They’re the individual sounds you can swap to create a different word, like /b/ in “bat” versus /p/ in “pat.” That contrastive power is what makes phonemes the key unit for distinguishing words. Graphemes are written symbols that represent sounds, not the sounds themselves. Diphthongs are a kind of vowel sound that moves from one vowel sound to another within a syllable, which is a specific type of sound but not the minimal contrastive unit. A vowel team is a spelling pattern that produces a particular vowel sound, not a single sound that distinguishes words on its own.