A (kana)

a
hiragana
japanese hiragana a
katakana
japanese katakana a
transliterationa
hiragana origin
katakana origin
Man'yōgana阿 安 英 足 鞅
spelling kana朝日のア
(Asahi no "a")

A (hiragana: あ, katakana: ア) is a Japanese kana that represents the mora consisting of single vowel [a]. The hiragana character あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji , while the katakana ア is from the radical of kanji . In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before . Additionally, it is the 36th letter in Iroha, after て, before さ. The Unicode for あ is U+3042, and the Unicode for ア is U+30A2.

Form Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Normal a/i/u/e/o
(あ行 a-gyō)
a
aa
ā
ああ, あぁ
あー
アア, アァ
アー