Click image to enlarge
A is the third most commonly used letter in the English alphabet (the letter e is in first place, followed closely by the letter t). The letter A likes to multitask, possessing three distinct phonemes: The æ, also referred to as a near-open front un-rounded vowel, denotes the a sound in apple and cat, the open-back un-rounded vowel, or a:, denotes the long a sound heard in father and March, and the ā, an orthographic vowel, exhibits the ei sound heard in the words made and fade.