—used like a functionality word in advance of a correct noun to tell apart the situation on the referent from a regular, previous, or hypothetical conditionDuring the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is employed for the open front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is employed for the open central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is used for the open