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A
First letter of the Latin alphabet / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Latin letter. For the similar Greek letter, see Alpha. For the similar Cyrillic letter, see A (Cyrillic). For other uses, see A (disambiguation).
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet,[1][2] used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced /ˈeɪ/ AY), plural aes.[nb 1][2]
For technical reasons, "A#" redirects here. For A-sharp, see A-sharp.
Quick Facts Usage, Writing system ...
A | |
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A a | |
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Usage | |
Writing system | Latin script |
Type | Alphabetic |
Language of origin | Latin language |
Phonetic usage | |
Unicode codepoint | U+0041, U+0061 |
Alphabetical position | 1 |
History | |
Development | |
Time period | c. 700 BCE – present |
Descendants | |
Sisters | |
Other | |
Other letters commonly used with | a(x), ae, eau, au |
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. |
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It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives.[3] The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of 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, a is the indefinite article, with the alternative form an.