* Phonetics describes the physical properties of speech sounds. It analyzes how sounds are produced (articulatory phonetics), how they are transmitted through the air (acoustic phonetics), and how they are perceived by the listener (auditory phonetics).
* Phonemes are abstract representations of sounds that are used to differentiate words. They are not the sounds themselves, but rather the mental categories that speakers use to organize sounds.
Think of it like this:
* Phonetics is the toolbox: It provides the tools to analyze and describe sounds, such as the place and manner of articulation, the frequency of sound waves, etc.
* Phonemes are the building blocks: They are the basic units of sound that make up the words of a language, even though they are abstract and don't necessarily have a one-to-one correspondence with a single physical sound.
Here's an example:
* The phoneme /p/ in English is represented by different physical sounds depending on its position in a word. The /p/ in "pin" is aspirated (a puff of air is released), while the /p/ in "spin" is unaspirated.
* Phonetics describes the physical differences between the aspirated and unaspirated /p/ sounds.
* Phonemes represent the abstract mental category of /p/, which is used to distinguish words like "pin" and "spin".
In short, phonetics provides the tools to study sounds, while phonemes are the units of sound that are used to make meaning in a language.