A

The word “A” means the first letter of the English alphabet. In plain terms, both the first letter of the alphabet and the small word we put in front of a noun when we mean "one of these, not a specific one.".

“A” is pronounced ay (/eɪ̯/ in IPA).

Here is “A” used in a sentence: “The word "apple" starts with an a.”

Words with a similar meaning to “A” include an and one.

The opposite of “A” — its antonyms — are every and the.

Depending on how it is used, “A” can be a character, an article and a preposition.

The word “A” comes from Latin. Descended from the Old English letter A, itself adapted from Latin, ultimately going back to the Phoenician letter aleph.

“A” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

Choose by sound, not spelling: use "a" before a consonant sound ("a house", "a university", "a one-way street") and "an" before a vowel sound ("an apple", "an hour", "an MBA"). "University" begins with a "y" sound and "hour" with a vowel sound, which is why the article switches.

"A" introduces one unspecified example of something: "I saw a fox." "The" refers to a particular one that both speaker and listener can identify: "the fox came back." A noun is often introduced with "a" first and then referred to with "the" afterwards.

Not normally: "a" means one of something countable, so "an information" and "a furniture" are incorrect. Use no article or a quantity phrase instead: "some information", "a piece of furniture."

"A historic" is the standard modern choice because the "h" in "historic" is pronounced. "An historic" survives in some older and British usage but is now widely regarded as dated.