Here's why:
* Vowel vs. Consonant: The most common distinction is between vowels and consonants. Vowels are sounds made with an open mouth, while consonants involve some obstruction of airflow. English has roughly 20 vowel sounds and around 24 consonant sounds, depending on your dialect.
* Phonetic vs. Graphemic: We can analyze sounds phonetically (the actual sounds produced) or graphemically (the letters that represent them). English has many more sounds than letters, and the same letter can represent different sounds. For example, the letter "c" can make the "k" sound as in "cat" or the "s" sound as in "cent".
* Dialectal Variation: English pronunciation varies significantly across dialects. What's considered a distinct sound in one dialect might be a variation of another sound in a different dialect.
So, a definitive answer is difficult to give. However, if we're talking about phonetically distinct consonant sounds in standard American English, we can estimate around 24.
Keep in mind that this is a simplified explanation. The study of phonetics and phonology is complex, and there are many different perspectives on how to categorize and count sounds in any language.