phoneme

English has approximately forty-four phonemes, though the exact number varies depending on the accent analysed.英语大约有四十四个音素，尽管确切数量因所分析的口音而异。

A change in phoneme can alter the meaning of a word, distinguishing minimal pairs such as 'bat' and 'pat'.音素的改变可以改变单词的含义，从而区分诸如“bat”和“pat”这样的最小对立体。