Ar

æ

arid /ˈærɪd/

eə

care /keər/

ɑː

car /kɑːr/

The letter combination "ar" has several different pronunciations, mainly /ɑːr/ and /eər/. This article sets out some words teachers can use to help their students become more aware of the differences.

"arr"

See Decoding exercises: "arr"

Monosyllables

• /ɑːr/: arm - art - bar - car - card - charge - dark - far - farm - guard - hard - large - mark - park - part - sharp - star - start - yard

Misleading silent e: are

• Magic e /eər/: care - rare - scare - share - square - stare
• /ɔːr/: quart - war - warm - warn

At the beginning or in the middle of the word

• /ɑːr/: Argentina, argue, argument, Arkansas, army, article, artist, department, market, participant, party
• /eər/: aquarium, area, Bulgaria, canary, careful, hilarious, invariable, malaria, parent, scarce, scary, variable, various, vary

ending in "arian": authoritarian, Bulgarian, humanitarian, Hungarian, librarian, vegetarian

• /ær/: apparel, apparent, Arizona, asparagus, characteristic, paragraph, transparent
• /ər/: arise, around, barista, cigarette, Hungary, parenthesis, separate, particular, variety

At the end of the word

• Magic e /eər/: aware - compare - declare - hardware - prepare - software
• /ɑːr/: avatar - cigar - guitar
• /ər/: burglar - calendar - caterpillar - cellular - circular - dollar - grammar - Madagascar - particular - popular - rectangular - regular - similar - solar - sugar

Followed by consonants

• /ɑːr/: apart - Denmark - regard - standard
• /ɔːr/: award - reward
• /ər/: awkward - Edward - forward - leopard - lizard - Richard - Spaniard - standard

Variant pronunciations

• /ər/^BrE /er/:^AmE library, necessary, primary, temporary
• /r/^BrE (silent "a"), /er/:^AmE military, secretary
• /eər/^{BrE AmE} /ær/^AmE: parent
• towards /təˈwɔːrdz,^BrE tɔːrdz^AmE/

Mary-marry-merry merger

In North America 74% of speakers merge "Mary" and "marry" (see Mary-marry-merry merger). This means that all words marked /eər/ or /ær/ are pronounced alike (either [eər] or [er]).

This particular merger is sometimes called the "hairy-Harry merger".