Pronunciation of the name of the letter a in European languages. /a/ and /aː/ can differ phonetically between [a], [ä], [æ] and [ɑ] depending on the language. The earliest known ancestor of A is aleph …

Before a consonant sound represented by a vowel letter a is usual. but an also occurs though less frequently now than formerly. Before unstressed or weakly stressed syllables with initial h both a and …

any spoken sound represented by the letter A or a, as in bake, hat, father, or small. something having the shape of an A . a written or printed representation of the letter A or a. a device, as a printer's …

Mar 27, 2026 · From Middle English a, an, from Old English ān (“one; a; lone; sole”). More at one. The "n" was gradually lost before consonants in almost all dialects by the 15th century. Cognate with …

language note: A or an is the indefinite article. It is used at the beginning of noun groups that refer to only one person or thing. The form an is used in front of words that begin with vowel sounds.

Used before nouns and noun phrases that denote a single but unspecified person or thing: a region; a person. 2. Used before terms that denote number, amount, quantity, or degree: only a few of the …

When do we use a and when do we use an? In speaking, we use a /ə/ before a consonant sound: …

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In algebra, the letter "A" along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent known quantities. In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to label line segments, lines, etc. Also, A …

Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter a. Any of the speech sounds that this letter represents, as, in English, the vowel (a) of hat, (ä) of father, (ā) of bake, or (ô) of call. The first in a …