ア (a) – Katakana

Pronunciation

– Pronounced as the Japanese ‘a’. Sounds closest to the English ‘a’ as in ‘ark’.

About

あ in hiragana or ア in katakana (romanised a) is one of the Japanese kana that each represent one mora. あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji 安, and ア is from the radical of kanji 阿. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before い.

Mnemonics

Mnemonic 1: Shown here is the mighty figurehead that is perched on the bow of Noah’s Ark.