A

A (/eɪ/; lower case a) is the first letter of the Latin alphabet, as used in English. It is a vowel letter.

A a A a A a A a

eə

care /keər/

ɑː

start /stɑːrt/

eɪ

face /feɪs/

æ

trap /træp/

In Received Pronunciation and in General American the letter A (lower case a, pronounced /eɪ/), as most vowel letters in English, has four main pronunciations:

• So-called “short a”, IPA phoneme /æ/, as in trap, bat, batting, rapid, ask,^AmE bath^AmE or marry.

Short a spelling, IPA phoneme /ɑː/^BrE (broad a) as in ask^BrE or bath.^BrE

• So-called “long a”, IPA phoneme /eɪ/, as in face, facing or famous
• Long "ar" monophthong (short vowel spelling), IPA phoneme /ɑː/, as in start, bar or barred
• Long "ar" diphthong (long vowel spelling), IPA phoneme /eə/, as in square, care, caring or parent

It also can be pronounced /ɑː/^{BrE AmE} as in father and /ɔː/ as in all — plus other, less common pronunciations, sometimes in combination with other letters, and, of course, it can be used as schwa. In Spelling patterns for the letter A there are some helpful rules (to be taken with the habitual pinch of salt).

Distinctions by dialect

Teaching the letter A is very much one of those cases in which teachers, whichever their preferences might be, need to point out the differences between RP (/ɑː/) and American (/æ/) pronunciations regarding words like bath and ask, while pointing out, of course, that most native British English speakers do, in fact, pronounce them /æ/. When teaching American English pronunciation the Mary-marry-merry merger can be explained.

Dialect	trap	bath	palm	start	marry	Mary
Received Pronunciation	/æ/	/ɑː/	/ɑː/	/ɑː/	/æ/	/eə/
General American	/æ/	/æ/	/ɑː/	/ɑː/	/æ/	/e/
Most American dialects (Mary-marry merger)	/æ/	/æ/	/ɑː/	/ɑː/	/e/	/e/

As /æ/

See main article IPA phoneme /æ/.
See also So-called “short a” and Decoding and spelling exercises: /æ/ vs /eɪ/.

• before final consonants: am - and - at - back - bad - bag - bat - cat - fan - ham - hand - land - man - map - sand - stand
• before double consonant or "ck": attack - battle - carry - cattle - channel - gallery - grammar - happen - happy - jacket - passenger - traffic
• before single consonant: average - balance - damage - family - have - January - manage - national - natural - value
• other: absolutely - actually - angry - aspect - capture - contract - factor - handle - transport

As /ɑː/

See main article Phoneme /ɑː/ in Received Pronunciation.

Most words in this section are pronounced with /æ/ in General American, unless they are followed by "r".

• before f, s and th

before final consonants: ask - bath - half - last - past - path - staff - task

before double consonant: giraffe - staffer

other: basket - pastor - rather

• before n: answer - can't - France - implant

Pronounced /ɑː/ also in General American

• calm - facade - father - koala - lama - llama - nuance - palm - spa
• before r: are - art - car - card - carpet - dark - far - garden - large - market - park - part - scar - scarf - start

As /eɪ/

See main article IPA phoneme /eɪ/.
See also So-called “long a” and Decoding and spelling exercises: /æ/ vs /eɪ/.

• with magic e: ache - age - bake - blame - brake - cake - date - escape - fake - game - gate - hake - lake - late - male - make - name - pale - plate - sale - same - sane - shake - snake - stale - state - take - trade - wake - whale
• before single consonant: behavior^AmE - behaviour^BrE - education - information - label - nature - paper - patient
• Other: able - ancient - arrange - change - fragrance/ˈfreɪɡrəns/ - range - strange - table

As /ɔ:/

See main article IPA phoneme /ɔː/

See also Decoding exercises: "al"

• before final "ll": all - ball - call - fall - hall - small - tall
• before /l/: already - also - almost - always - alter - salt
• after "w": walk - wall - war - ward - water
• other: chalk - talk

As /ɒ/

See main article IPA phoneme /ɒ/.

• as /ɒ/: quality - restaurant, wander, was,^BrE wasp, watch
• as /ɒ/,^BrE /ɔː/^AmE: wallet, want, warrant, warranty, wash

As /ə/

See main article IPA phoneme /ə/.

• weak forms: a - am - can - shall - than
• at beginning

verbs: acquire - admire - afford - agree - allow - appeal - appear - approach - arise - arrive

nouns: accord - account - amount - appeal - approach

other: about - above - across - again - against - ago - alone - among - another - around - available - away

• at end: Africa - African - America - American - camera - China - data - extra - human - idea - India - Indonesia - legal - local- organ - several - woman
• as part of suffix -able: capable - comfortable - likable^{AmE BrE} - likeable^BrE probable - suitable - variable
• as part of suffix -ate /ə/ or /ɪ/: chocolate - climate - fortunate - immediate - private
• as part of ative: tentative - alternative - imperative - conservative
• other: Canada - company - organise - relative

As /ɪ/

See main article IPA phoneme /ɪ/

• furnace - octave - orange - spinach
• ending in -age: advantage - average - beverage - image - language - manage - percentage - village

As /ɪ/ or /ə/

The words in this section appear with /ɪ/ in some dictionaries and with /ə/ in others.

• accessible - character - chocolate - extravagant - indiscriminate - massacre - obstacle - receptacle

Silent "a"

• automatically, basically, dramatically, logically, romantically, specifically, typically
• varisyllabic words: Barbara, boundary, library,^BrE Margaret, separate
• only in British English: military, ordinary, secondary, secretary, voluntary

Spelling anomalies

• as /e/: any - many - Thames
• as /iː/: Israel
• as /ʌ/: was^AmE
• So-called long sound with short sound spelling, as /eɪ/: bass (music)

Variant pronunciations

• data /ˈdeɪtə, ˈdɑːtə,^BrE ˈdætə^AmE/
• what /wɒt, wʌt^AmE/

Combinations

"ai"

Main article: Decoding exercises: "ai"

• as /eɪ/: Adelaide, afraid, aid, aim, available, brain, campaign, chain, claim, complain, contain, daily, detail, entertain, explain, fail, faith, gain, hail, Haiti, jail, mail, main, Maine, maintain, paid, pain, paint, rail, rain, raise, remain, retail, snail, Spain, stain, straight, train, trait, wait

• as /e/: again (also /əˈɡeɪn/) - said

"air"

• as /eə/: air - affair - chair - fair - hair - pair

"ay"

Main article: Decoding exercises: "ay"

• as /eɪ/: day - pay - play - May - say - stay - tray
• as /e/: says

"au"

See main article Decoding exercises: "au"

• as /ɔː/: auction - August - author - autumn - caught - cause - daughter - taught;
• as /ɒ/: Aussie - austerity - Australia - Austria;
• as /ɑː/ : aunt - draught - laugh

"aw"

• as /ɔː/: draw - law - raw - saw
• "awy" as /ɔːj/ or /ɔɪ/: lawyer /ˈlɔːjər, ˈlɔɪər/
• In separate syllables

• aware - award

"ae"

Main article: Decoding exercises: "ae"

• as /iː/ or /e/: aesthetic
• as /iː/: Caesar - paediatrician^BrE
• as /ə/: gynaecologist^BrE
• as /eɪ/ or /iː/: sundae
• as /eə/: aerobic - aeroplane^BrE

"ar"

Main article: Decoding exercises: "ar"‎

• /eə/

with magic e: aware - bare - care - compare - dare - Delaware - fare - hare - rare - scare - share - spare - square

other: area - careful - Mary - parent - rarely - Sarah - vary

• see As /ɑː/ above.
• /ɔː/: quarter - war
• /æ/: apparent - character - charity - comparison - paragraph - parallel
• /ə/: arise - around - career - cigarette - preparation

"arr"

Main article: Decoding exercises: "arr"‎

• /æ/: barrier - carry - embarrass - marriage - marry - narrative - narrow
• /ɒ/,^BrE /ɔː/^AmE: warrant - warranty
• /ə/: arrange - arrest - arrive

Homophones

• As /eɪ/: brake - break; grate - great; male - mail; place - plaice; plane - plain; rain - reign; sale - sail; stake - steak; tale - tail; Wales - whales; waste - waist; weigh - way; weight - wait; weighed - wade;
• As /eə/: bare - bear; hair - hare; pair - pear; stairs - stares;
• As /æ/: ad - add; band - banned; cash - cache;
• As /ɑː^BrE, æ^AmE/: passed - past;

Only in non-rhotic accents:

• As /ɑː/: aren't - aunt

Trademarks

• Waze - ways

Different pronunciations in the same word

• Africa/African - America/American - Australia/Australian - Austria/Austrian - average - character - language

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish

Many Spanish speakers will try, instinctively, to pronounce it either as /eɪ/ or as /ʌ/ (which is quite similar, but often not quite enough, to the letter a in Spanish). This is particularly problematic for words such as want, what or water or for the schwa.