What are linguistic units?

Linguistic units are like building blocks that help us put together words and sentences.

Imagine you have a set of lego bricks, each brick is a different size or color. Just as lego bricks fit together to make cool structures, linguistic units fit together to make language. Some are small, like the letters in "cat," and some are bigger, like the word "cat" itself.

• Letters are the tiniest blocks, they're like the tiny lego pieces you use to start a tower.
• Words are made by putting together letters, it's like stacking a few bricks to make something you can see and touch.
• Sentences are made by joining words, this is like making a whole building with many different lego pieces.

When we speak or write, we're using these blocks without even thinking about it. Just like how you might build a castle one brick at a time, we build language one linguistic unit at a time.