Correct Response: A. Option A is correct because the words cap and nap differ only by their initial phoneme. A phoneme is a phonological unit of language—a discrete speech sound in a particular language that speakers of the language recognize as sufficient to distinguish between two phonologically similar but distinct words. For example, the speech sounds /k/ and /n/ are phonemes in English because native English speakers who hear the pair of spoken words cap and nap regard them as distinct words. Option B is incorrect because see and sea are pronounced the same way; that is, they contain an identical sequence of phonemes. Option C is incorrect because the two words differ by one morpheme (their prefix), but the prefixes differ by more than one phoneme. Option D is incorrect because bashed and basked differ in spelling by one letter, but they differ in pronunciation by two phonemes.
