What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is defined as the smallest distinguishable unit of sound in a language. It represents the individual sounds that can differentiate word meanings when they are pronounced, even though they might not carry meaning by themselves. For example, the sounds /p/ and /b/ in the words "pat" and "bat" are phonemes, as changing the initial sound alters the meaning of the word. Understanding phonemes is essential for phonics, which directly connects to reading and pronunciation skills in language learning.

The other options detail different linguistic concepts that are not directly related to the definition of a phoneme. A system of word construction refers to the rules and patterns that govern how words are formed, rather than focusing on individual sounds. The smallest meaningful unit of language is known as a morpheme, which encompasses both phonemes and meaningful components of words. Methods of sentence structure pertain to grammar and syntax, which involve how words are arranged to create coherent sentences, rather than the phonetic elements of language.