# ア — katakana “a”

ア is the katakana character for the sound “a”. It is written with 2 strokes, and in hiragana the same sound is あ.

- Reading: a
- Strokes: 2
- Hiragana: あ

## How ア sounds

Like the a in “father”, but shorter.

## Don't confuse it with

マ

## Words with ア

| Word | Reading | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| アニメ | anime | animation |
| アメリカ | amerika | America |
| アパート | apaato | apartment building |
| アフリカ | afurika | Africa |
| アイデア | aidea | idea |
| アジア | ajia | Asia |

---

From Moji Ninja (https://moji.ninja/), a free app for learning hiragana, katakana and the JLPT kanji from N5 to N1 with spaced repetition. Page: https://moji.ninja/katakana-chart/a/. Last updated 2026-11-01.