In written language, what does a grapheme represent?

A grapheme represents a letter or a combination of letters that corresponds to a sound in the language. While graphemes can often be single letters, they can also represent clusters of letters or diacritical marks used to denote specific sounds within a word.

Understanding graphemes is crucial for decoding written language, as they are the visual representations that correlate with phonemes, the smallest units of sound in spoken language. This connection between graphemes and sounds is foundational in teaching reading and writing, as students learn to identify these symbols and link them to their pronunciations.

In contrast, while a grapheme is related to sound, it does not directly represent meaning or action as other options suggest. Meaning is typically connected to larger units like morphemes or words, and action does not specifically relate to written language. Therefore, the focus on sound aligns directly with the definition of a grapheme in the context of phonetics and literacy development.