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ISO basic Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz
v t e

A (/ˈeɪ/; named a, plural aes) is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.

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Usage

In English, "a" by itself frequently denotes the near-open front unrounded vowel (/æ/) as in pad, the open back unrounded vowel (/ɑː/) as in father, or, in concert with a later orthographic vowel, the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major, due to effects of the great vowel shift.

In most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, "a" denotes an open front unrounded vowel (/a/). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, variants of "a" denote various vowels. In X-SAMPA, capital "A" denotes the open back unrounded vowel and lowercase "a" denotes the open front unrounded vowel.

"A" is the third common used letter in English, and the second most common in Spanish and French. In one study, on average, about 3.68% of letters used in English tend to be ‹a›s, while the number is 6.22% in Spanish and 3.95% in French.

"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 turned "a" ("ɐ") is used by the International Phonetic Alphabet for the near-open central vowel, while a turned capital "A" ("∀") is used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification.

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Codes for computing

In Unicode, the capital "A" is codepoint U+0041 and the lower case "a" is U+0061.

The ASCII code for capital "A" is 65 and for lower case "a" is 97; or in binary 01000001 and 01100001, respectively.

The EBCDIC code for capital "A" is 193 and for lowercase "a" is 129; or in binary 11000001 and 10000001, respectively.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "A" and "a" for upper and lower case, respectively.

See also

• ª
• Æ
• Alpha
• Cyrillic A

References

1. "A" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989). Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is As, A's, as, a's.
2. "Percentages of Letter frequencies per Thousand words". Retrieved 2006-05-01.
3. "Letters affect exam results" (Document). British Psychological Society. 9 March 2010. {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help)
4. "Javascript Unicode Chart". Retrieved 2009-03-08.

External links

• History of the Alphabet
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • “A” in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  • Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  • Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). "A". Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company.

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• Misplaced Pages articles incorporating citation to the NSRW with no title or wstitle parameter
• Latin letters
• Vowel letters
• Requests for audio pronunciation (English)