Here's why:
* Phonemes are sounds, not letters. We use letters to represent sounds, but the way we spell those sounds can vary greatly.
* There are many different ways to represent a single phoneme. For example, the phoneme /k/ can be spelled "c", "k", "ck", "ch" and more.
Therefore, there's no single "correct" answer to how many ways you can spell the 44 phonemes. It depends on the specific words and spellings you're considering!