 hello and welcome. In this short video I want to show you how to determine the number of sound segments in a word or in a short passage. Let's take the English word knowing as an example. From an orthographic point of view the matter seems clear. We simply count the letters and the result is five consonants K, N, W, N and G and two vowels O and I. Such an analysis however is confined to those languages that are written and that use a phonographic writing system. A more general approach which can be applied to all languages however uses a phonetic analysis where each sound segment is represented phonetically. Now phonetically knowing has three vocalec and two consonant segments. However in applying our knowledge about the sound system of present-day English here received pronunciation the standard phonological dialect of England we know that O is treated as a single vocalec phoneme. Thus the phonemic analysis yields two consonants and two vowels. Here is another example match play. The phonetic analysis gives us eight sound segments, five consonants and three vowels. But since in RP Ch is an african and A a diphthong and both constitute single phonemes we have only six elements that is four consonants and two vowels. Thus for all languages we suggest the following procedure. First transcribe an item phonetically and isolate its sound segments. If you have access to the sound system of the language perform a phonemic analysis next and possibly refine the number of segments. For example in English the consonantal cluster T and S in salts is analyzed as two consonants a plosive and a fricative. Whereas in German salts it is a single african consonantal phoneme. Further examples can be found on the virtue linguistics compass for example in the practical sections or in the mastery tests of our phonological course.