Utah Foundation of Reading Test (FORT) Practice Test

The word "own" contains two phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. In the case of "own," it can be broken down into the sounds /oʊ/ and /n/. The first part /oʊ/ represents the vowel sound that is a diphthong (a complex vowel sound), and the second part /n/ represents the nasal consonant sound. Therefore, when you pronounce the word "own," you effectively produce two distinct sounds combined to create the word, confirming that the correct count of phonemes in "own" is indeed two.