The shortest word in the English language is a.
While the word "I" also consists of a single letter, the word "a" is generally considered the shortest due to its pronunciation. "A" is a monophthong, meaning it consists of a single vowel sound. "I," on the other hand, is a diphthong, a combination of two vowel sounds.
Therefore, based on phonetics and the number of letters, "a" is the shortest word. Although "I" consists of one letter, "a" is phonetically shorter.
