A

How to type it

Left pinky; hold Shift for the capital. Introduced in Lesson 4: Home row: a and ;.

Common uses

• A is the first letter of the alphabet and the third most common letter in English text.
• As a word, a is the indefinite article, used before words that begin with a consonant sound.

Less common uses

• In hexadecimal, A stands for the value ten.
• In music, the A above middle C is the standard tuning pitch, 440 hertz.
• A descends from the Phoenician letter aleph, whose name meant ox.