← The Sounds of English · Lesson 1 of 3
More sounds than letters
English has 26 letters but, depending on the accent, around 44 distinct sounds. Linguists call each one a phoneme: a sound that changes the meaning of a word.
So letters have to team up. Two letters can spell one sound (sh, ch, th, ee), and one letter can spell several sounds (the a in cat, car and cake).
How many sounds are in the word "ship"?
A lesson is kept once you've answered the question and written at least 8 words. Nobody grades it; it stays on this device.