In English, "a" usually symbolizes the sound of the front vowel almost openly unanimated (IPA: / æ /; as in the word pad), the back vowel is open intact (IPA: / ɑː /; as in the word father), or diphthong / eɪ / as in the words ace and major, because of the effect of Massive Vocal Shifts.

In most languages ​​that use the Latin alphabet system, "a" symbolizes the sound of the front vowel being open uninterested (/ a /). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, variations of the letter "a" indicate different vowels. In the X-SAMPA system, the uppercase letter "A" indicates the back vowels are open unintentionally and the lowercase letter "a" indicates the front vowels open intact.

"A" is the third most commonly used letter in English, and the second most used in Spanish and French. In one study, on average, about 3.68% of the letters used in English tended to ‹a›, while the figure was 6.22% for Spanish and 3.95% for French. [3]

"A" is often used to indicate something or someone with a better or prestigious quality or status: A-, A or A +, the best results given by the teacher / lecturer to student assignments; A's for clean restaurants, etc.