Phoneme:
* Smallest unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a language.
* Abstract representation of a sound.
* Not a physical sound itself, but a category of sounds that are perceived as being similar.
* Example: The English word "cat" has three phonemes: /k/, /æ/, and /t/.
Syllable:
* Unit of pronunciation that consists of a vowel sound and any surrounding consonants.
* Physical unit of speech.
* Can be broken down into phonemes.
* Example: The English word "cat" has one syllable, while the word "banana" has three.
Here's an analogy:
Think of a phoneme as a letter and a syllable as a word.
* A letter (phoneme) has no meaning on its own, but when combined with other letters (phonemes), it forms a word (syllable) that has meaning.
* You can have words (syllables) with one letter (phoneme) like "a" or words with many letters (phonemes) like "elephant".
In summary:
* Phonemes are the building blocks of syllables.
* Syllables are the building blocks of words.