A a — a
«a» is a vowel of Spanish, the “The Spanish Latin alphabet” script, read as “ah”. A clean 'ah'. Unstressed, it never fades toward 'uh' the way English vowels do. For example, in the word “agua” — water. The Spanish alphabet has 30 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “hola” — hello.
In short
| Character | A a |
| Name | a |
| Sound | ah |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 1st of 30: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, after it comes b, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How it sounds
A clean 'ah'. Unstressed, it never fades toward 'uh' the way English vowels do
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- aguawater
The character in the “five vowels — and exactly five sounds” group
Spanish's main gift: only five vowels, they never reduce, and they sound the same stressed and unstressed.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «a» it is “ah”, as in the word “agua”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 30 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Spanish character a read?
As “ah” — it is a vowel of the “The Spanish Latin alphabet” script. A clean 'ah'. Unstressed, it never fades toward 'uh' the way English vowels do. For example, in the word “agua” — water.
What is the letter a called?
A. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Spanish script: it is called “a” and reads as “ah”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.