Open back unrounded vowel

This phonetics article is valid in most of the English speaking world. For a specific article for British English and received pronunciation see Phoneme /ɑː/ in Received Pronunciation. For American English see Phoneme /ɑː/ in General American.

ɑː

start /stɑːrt/

ɑː

palm /pɑːm/

The IPA phonetic symbol /ɑː/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "start", "art", "palm" and "spa".

In Received Pronunciation, /ɑː/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "bath" and "ask", in addition to "start", "art", "palm" and "spa". See also Phoneme /ɑː/ in Received Pronunciation.

In General American this phoneme is present in "lot" and "stop" in addition to "start", "art", "palm" and "spa". See also Phoneme /ɑː/ in General American and IPA phoneme /ɒ/.

In Received Pronunciation /ɑːr/ is pronounced [ɑː] unless it is followed by a vowel, i.e. the "r" is normally silent unless it is followed by a vowel.

In General American the "r" is always pronounced.

There are places in the United Kingdom where the "r" is pronounced, and places in North America where it is not pronounced.

The remainder of this article is valid both for Received Pronunciation and General American. See Phoneme /ɑː/ in Received Pronunciation and Phoneme /ɑː/ in General American for more examples.

Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɑː/ include the following:

• with "a": father
• with "ar": apart, are /ər, ɑːr/, aren't, argue /ˈɑːrɡjuː/, argument, arm, army, art, article, artist, bar, car, card, carpet, charge, charm, chart, dark, department, far, farm, garden, guard /ɡɑːrd/, guitar, hard, harm, large, march, mark, market, park, part, partner, party, regard, remark, sharp, smart, star, start, target /ˈtɑːrɡɪt/, yard

• others: heart - our /ɑːr, ˈaʊər/

Less common words

• with "a": avocado - balm - bra - garage - karate - lama - lava - llama - Nazi - origami - palm - piñata - psalm - soprano - spa - tsunami
• with "ar": aria - guitarist - safari - sari
• "oi" as /wɑː/: bourgeoisie - repertoire

Spelling anomalies: clerk /klɑːrk/^BrE (AmE is /klɜːrk/) - sergeant /ˈsɑːrdʒənt/

Proper nouns

People

• /ɑː/: Bach, Brahms, Dali anglicised pronunciation /ˈdɑːliː/, Catalan pronunciation /dəˈliː/; Barack Obama /bəˈrɑːk əʊˈbɑːmə/, Picasso
• /ɑːr/: Arthur, Barbara, Carl, Charles, Margaret, Mark, Martha

Geography

• /ɑː/: Azerbaijan /æzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/, Caracas /kəˈrɑːkəs/, Colorado /kɒləˈrædəʊ, kɒləˈrɑːdəʊ/, Guatemala /gwɑːtəˈmɑːlə/, La Paz /lə ˈpɑːz/, Managua /məˈnɑːgwə/, Osaka /əʊˈsɑːkə/, Pakistan /ˈpækɪstæn, pɑkɪˈstɑn/, Panama /ˈpænəmɑː/, Santiago /sæntɪˈɑːgəʊ/, Taiwan /ˈtaɪˈwɑːn/, Utah /ˈjuːtɔː, ˈjuːtɑː/
• /ɑːr/: Argentina, Arkansas /ˈɑːrkənsɔː/, Armenia, Cardiff, Denmark, Iran /ɪˈrɑːn, ɪˈræn/,