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A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word that makes a variation in its pronunciation along with its meaning from another word. For example, the /k/ in 'king' separates it from /b/ in 'being', as it is different from 'king' in pronunciation and meaning.
Another example is the English phoneme/p/, which occurs in words such as people, pack, capsule. octopus, optimistic.
In the English language there are total 44 phonemes which include consonants, short vowels, long vowels, monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs.
Phonemes have patent uses in the English language such as the /k/, /g/,/h/ consonant sounds that are missing is some languages. The written portrayal of a sound is places in slashes, as in this example where /k/ is placed in slashes on both sides.
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