Editing A (section)

== Use in writing systems ==
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+ Pronunciation of {{angbr|a}} by language
! width="5em" scope="col" | Orthography
! scope="col" | Phonemes
|-
! scope="row" | {{nwr|[[Standard Chinese]]}} ([[pinyin]])
| {{IPAslink|a}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[English orthography|English]]
| {{IPAslink|æ}}, {{IPAslink|ɑː}}, {{IPAslink|ɒ}}, {{IPAslink|ɔː}}, {{IPA link|ɛ|/ɛː/}}, {{IPA|/eɪ/}}, {{IPAslink|ə}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[French orthography|French]]
| {{IPAslink|a}}, {{IPAslink|ɑ}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[German orthography|German]]
| {{IPAslink|a}}, {{IPAslink|aː}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Portuguese orthography|Portuguese]] 
| {{IPAslink|a}}, {{IPAslink|ɐ}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Saanich dialect|Saanich]]
| {{IPAslink|e}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Spanish orthography|Spanish]]
| {{IPAslink|a}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Turkish alphabet|Turkish]]
| {{IPAslink|a}}
|}

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+ Cross-linguistic variation of {{angbr|a}} pronunciation
! Phone !! Orthography
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: center" | {{IPAblink|a}}
| [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Malay language|Malay]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Stavangersk|Stavangersk Norwegian]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], [[Turkish alphabet|Turkish]], [[Dutch dialects|Utrecht Dutch]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|aː}}
| [[Dutch language|Dutch]] (doubled), [[German language|German]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|a̠}}
| [[Afrikaans]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|a̠ː}}
| [[New Zealand English]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Limburgish]] (doubled), [[Luxembourgish]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ä}}
| [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[French language|French]], [[Northern England English]], [[Terengganu Malay]], [[Polish language|Polish]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|äː}}
| [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]] (doubled)
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: center" | {{IPAblink|ɑ}}
| [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[French language|French]], [[Kaingang language|Kaingang]], [[Limburgish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ɑː}}
| [[Afrikaans]] (doubled), [[Danish language|Danish]], [[German language|German]], [[Southern England English]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ɑ̝}}
| [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Luxembourgish]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: center" | {{IPAblink|ɒ}}
| [[Southern England English]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Kedah Malay]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ɒː}}
| [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ɒ̜ː}}
| [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ɒ̝ː}}
| [[Maastrichtian Limburgish]], [[Ulster Irish]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|æ}}
| [[Danish language|Danish]], [[English language|English]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Zeta–Raška dialect|Zeta–Raška Serbo-Croatian]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ɐ}}
| [[Australian English]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Catalan dialects|Central Catalan]], [[Emilian dialects|Emilian]], [[Galician language|Galician]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
|-
! scope="row" | {{IPAblink|ɐ̝}}
| [[Mapudungun]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ɛ}}
| [[New Zealand English]], [[Perak Malay]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ɜ}}
| [[Chemnitz dialect|Chemnitz German]], [[Transylvanian varieties of Romanian|Transylvanian Romanian]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ʌ}}
| [[Chemnitz dialect|Chemnitz German]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ɔː}}
| [[Southern England English]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ə}}
| [[English language|English]], [[Eastern Catalan]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|e}}
| [[Saanich language|Saanich]]
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[eɪ]}}
| [[English language|English]]
|}

=== English ===
{{Further|Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩}}
[[File:A for apple.jpg|thumb|In English language education, the word ''apple'' is consistently associated with the letter A.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mankin |first=Jennifer |last2=Simner |first2=Julia |date=May 30, 2017 |title=A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter-Word Associations in the Development of Grapheme-Colour Synaesthesia |url=https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_is_for_apple_the_role_of_letter-word_associations_in_the_development_of_grapheme-colour_synaesthesia/23444111/1/files/41154893.pdf |journal=Multisensory Research |volume=30 |issue=3–5 |pages=409–446 |doi=10.1163/22134808-00002554 |pmid=31287075 |access-date=December 16, 2023| issn=2213-4794}}</ref>]]
In modern [[English orthography]], the letter {{angbr|a}} represents at least seven different vowel sounds, here represented using the vowels of [[Received Pronunciation]], with [[English-language vowel changes before historic /r/|effects of {{angbr|r}}]] ignored and mergers in [[General American]] mentioned where relevant:
*the [[near-open front unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|/æ/}} as in ''pad''
*the [[open back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|/ɑː/}} as in ''father''—merged with {{IPAslink|ɒ}} as {{IPAslink|ɑ}} in [[General American]]—which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound{{sfn|Hall-Quest|1997|p=1}}
*the [[open back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|/ɒ/}} (merged with {{IPA|/ɑː/}} as {{IPAslink|ɑ}} in [[General American]]) in ''was'' and ''what''{{sfn|Hoiberg|2010|p=1}}
*the [[open-mid back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|/ɔː/}} in ''water''
*the [[diphthong]] {{IPA|/eɪ/}} as in ''ace'' and ''major'', usually when {{vr|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]]
*a [[schwa]] {{IPA|/ə/}} in many unstressed syllables, as in ''about'', ''comma'', ''solar''

The double {{angbr|aa}} sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as ''Aaron'' and ''[[aardvark]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Gelb|Whiting|1998|p=45}}</ref> However, {{vr|a}} occurs in [[List of Latin-script digraphs|many common digraphs]], all with their own sound or sounds, particularly {{vr|ai}}, {{vr|au}}, {{vr|aw}}, {{vr|ay}}, {{vr|ea}} and {{vr|oa}}.

{{angbr|a}} is the third-most-commonly used letter in English after {{angbr|e}} and {{angbr|t}}, as well as in French; it is the second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. {{angbr|a}} represents approximately 8.2% of letters as used in English texts;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letter frequency (English) |url=http://en.algoritmy.net/article/40379/Letter-frequency-English |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304152631/http://en.algoritmy.net/article/40379/Letter-frequency-English |archive-date=2021-03-04 |access-date=2022-01-03}}</ref> the figure is around 7.6% in French<ref>{{Cite web |title=Corpus de Thomas Tempé |url=http://gpl.insa-lyon.fr/Dvorak-Fr/CorpusDeThomasTemp%C3%A9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930194046/http://gpl.insa-lyon.fr/Dvorak-Fr/CorpusDeThomasTemp%C3%A9 |archive-date=2007-09-30 |access-date=2007-06-15 |language=fr}}</ref> 11.5% in Spanish,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pratt |first=Fletcher |title=Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers |publisher=Blue Ribbon |year=1942 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=254–255 |oclc=795065}}</ref> and 14.6% in Portuguese.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português |url=http://www.numaboa.com/criptografia/criptoanalise/310-Frequencia-no-Portugues |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803182254/http://www.numaboa.com/criptografia/criptoanalise/310-Frequencia-no-Portugues |archive-date=2009-08-03 |access-date=2009-06-16 |language=pt}}</ref>

=== Other languages ===
In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, {{angbr|a}} denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as {{IPAslink|a}}, {{IPAslink|ä}}, or {{IPAslink|ɑ}}. An exception is [[Saanich dialect|Saanich]], in which {{angbr|a}}—and the glyph {{angbr|[[Á]]}}—stands for a [[close-mid front unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|/e/}}.

=== Other systems ===
* In the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]], {{angbr IPA|a}} is used for the [[open front unrounded vowel]], {{angbr IPA|ä}} is used for the [[open central unrounded vowel]], and {{angbr IPA|ɑ}} is used for the [[open back unrounded vowel]].
* In [[X-SAMPA]], {{angbr|a}} is used for the [[open front unrounded vowel]] and {{angbr|A}} is used for the [[open back unrounded vowel]].