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A
A a ɑ
(See below)
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Type	Alphabet
Language of origin	Latin language
Sound values	/eɪ/
In Unicode	U+0041, U+0061
Alphabetical position	1
History
Development	Α α 𐌀 A a ɑ
Time period	~-700 to present
Descendants	Æ Ä Â Ɑ Ʌ Ɐ ª Å ₳ @ Ⓐ ⓐ ⒜ 🅰
Sisters	𐌰 А Я Ә Ӑ א ا ܐ ࠀ 𐎀 ℵ አ ء Ա ա અ अ অ
Variations	(See below)
Other
Associated graphs	a(x), ae, eau
Writing direction	Left-to-Right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz
v t e

A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (pronounced /ˈeɪ/), plural aes. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.

In English grammar, "a", and its variant "an", are indefinite articles.

a

Use in writing systems

English

In modern English orthography, the letter ⟨a⟩ represents at least seven different vowel sounds:

• the near-open front unrounded vowel /æ/ as in pad;
• the open back unrounded vowel /ɑː/ as in father, which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound;
• the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major (usually when ⟨a⟩ is followed by one, or occasionally two, consonants and then another vowel letter) – this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel Shift;
• the modified form of the above sound that occurs before ⟨r⟩, as in square and Mary;
• the rounded vowel of water;
• the shorter rounded vowel (not present in General American) in was and what;
• a schwa, in many unstressed syllables, as in about, comma, solar.

The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as Aaron and aardvark. However, ⟨a⟩ occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨oa⟩.

⟨a⟩ is the third-most-commonly used letter in English (after ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩) and French, the second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. About 8.167% of letters used in English texts tend to be ⟨a⟩; the number is around 7.636% in French, 11.525% in Spanish, and 14.634% for Portuguese.

Other languages

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, ⟨a⟩ denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as /a/, /ä/, or /ɑ/. An exception is Saanich, in which ⟨a⟩ (and the glyph Á) stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel /e/.

Other systems

In phonetic and phonemic notation:

• in the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel.
• in X-SAMPA, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel and ⟨A⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel.

Other uses

In algebra, the letter a along with various other letters of the alphabet is often used to denote a variable, with various conventional meanings in different areas of mathematics. Moreover, in 1637, René Descartes "invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c", and this convention is still often followed, especially in elementary algebra.

In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to denote segments, lines, rays, etc. A capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side opposite angle A.

"A" is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A−, A or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters.

"A" is used as a prefix on some words, such as asymmetry, to mean "not" or "without" (from Greek).

In English grammar, "a", and its variant "an", is an indefinite article, used to introduce noun phrases.

Finally, the letter A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe, or a small cup size in a brassiere.

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

• Æ æ : Latin AE ligature
• A with diacritics: Å å Ǻ ǻ Ḁ ḁ ẚ Ă ă Ặ ặ Ắ ắ Ằ ằ Ẳ ẳ Ẵ ẵ Ȃ ȃ Â â Ậ ậ Ấ ấ Ầ ầ Ẫ ẫ Ẩ ẩ Ả ả Ǎ ǎ Ⱥ ⱥ Ȧ ȧ Ǡ ǡ Ạ ạ Ä ä Ǟ ǟ À à Ȁ ȁ Á á Ā ā Ā̀ ā̀ Ã ã Ą ą Ą́ ą́ Ą̃ ą̃ A̲ a̲ ᶏ
• Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems):
  • Ɑ ɑ : Latin letter alpha / script A, which represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA
  • ᶐ : Latin small letter alpha with retroflex hook
  • Ɐ ɐ : Turned A, which represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA
  • Λ ʌ : Turned V (also called a wedge, a caret, or a hat), which represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in the IPA
  • Ɒ ɒ : Turned alpha / script A, which represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA
  • ᶛ : Modifier letter small turned alpha
  • ᴀ : Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)
  • ᵄ : Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) (sometimes encoded with Unicode subscripts and superscripts)
  • _a : Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies
  • ꬱ : Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system
  • Ꞻ ꞻ : Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

• ª : an ordinal indicator
• Å : Ångström sign
• ∀ : a turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all")
• @ : At sign
• ₳ : Argentine austral

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

• 𐤀 : Semitic letter Aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive
  • Α α : Greek letter Alpha, from which the following letters derive
    • А а : Cyrillic letter A
    • Ⲁ ⲁ : Coptic letter Alpha
    • 𐌀 : Old Italic A, which is the ancestor of modern Latin A
      • ᚨ : Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A
    • 𐌰 : Gothic letter aza/asks
• Ա ա : Armenian letter Ayb

Code points

These are the code points for the forms of the letter in various systems

Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling)	British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling)	Braille dots-1 Unified English Braille

Use as a number

In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, A is a number that corresponds to the number 10 in decimal (base 10) counting.

Notes

1. Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered As, A's, as, or a's.

Footnotes

1. "Latin alphabet | Definition, Description, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
2. ^ Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1
3. McCarter 1974, p. 54
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Coll was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. Cite error: The named reference Britannica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45
7. "Letter frequency (English)". en.algoritmy.net. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
8. "Corpus de Thomas Tempé" (in French). Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
9. Pratt, Fletcher (1942). Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Garden City, NY: Blue Ribbon Books. pp. 254–5. OCLC 795065.
10. "Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3 August 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
11. Tom Sorell, Descartes: A Very Short Introduction, (2000). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19.
12. Cite error: The named reference Americana was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
13. Ciani & Sheldon 2010, pp. 99–100
14. Luciani, Jené (2009). The Bra Book: The Fashion Formula to Finding the Perfect Bra. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books. p. 13. ISBN 9781933771946. OCLC 317453115.
15. ^ Constable, Peter (19 April 2004), L2/04-132 Proposal to Add Additional Phonetic Characters to the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
16. Everson, Michael; et al. (20 March 2002), L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet Characters for the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2018, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
17. Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (7 June 2004), L2/04-191: Proposal to Encode Six Indo-Europeanist Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
18. Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2 June 2011), L2/11-202: Revised Proposal to Encode "Teuthonista" Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
19. Suignard, Michel (9 May 2017), L2/17-076R2: Revised Proposal for the Encoding of an Egyptological YOD and Ugaritic Characters (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2019, retrieved 8 March 2019 – via www.unicode.org
20. Jensen, Hans (1969). Sign, Symbol, and Script. New York: G.P. Putman's Sons.
21. "Hebrew Lesson of the Week: The Letter Aleph". 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via The Times of Israel.
22. "Cyrillic Alphabet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
23. Silvestre, M. J. B. (1850). Universal Palaeography. Translated by Madden, Frederic. London: Henry G. Bohn. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
24. Frothingham, A. L., Jr. (1891). "Italic Studies". Archaeological News. American Journal of Archaeology. 7 (4): 534. JSTOR 496497. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2020.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
25. Steele, Philippa M., ed. (2017). Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 9781785706479. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
26. Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (second ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444359688. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
27. "𐌰". Wiktionary. Archived from the original on 17 December 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.

References

• "English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Club. Cornell University. 2004. Archived from the original on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
• "Percentages of Letter Frequencies per Thousand Words". Trinity College. 2006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
• Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon M. (2010). "A Versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 80 (1): 99–119. doi:10.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200.
• Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. I: A-Anjou (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN 978-0-7172-0133-4.
• Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K. Anne (ed.). Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. I: A–Ang (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN 978-0-7172-2068-7.
• Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. I: A to Ameland (First ed.). New York, NY: P.F. Collier.
• Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1: A-ak–Bayes. Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
• McCarter, P. Kyle (1974). "The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet". The Biblical Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–68. doi:10.2307/3210965. JSTOR 3210965. S2CID 126182369.
• Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E.S.C., eds. (1989). "A". The Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. I: A–Bazouki (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861213-1.

External links

• History of the Alphabet
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
  • "A". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
  • "A". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  • "A". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
  • "A". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

• ISO basic Latin letters
• Vowel letters