count if excel

in excel if type "=conuntif(a1:c10,"a")
it will count all the cell with a in
but is there where so if the cell had aa it would count that cell as 2

It should not be hard for you to try & see.
Just take a count now, add the word alpha to a cell. If it is just counting the number of cells wit 'a', it should only count once. If it is counting number of times 'a' is used, then it will count twice.
That's just my take as a professional rookie. I only have MS Works and it has popup saying not a correct formula for MS Works spreadsheet.