Sound Right

/ɑr/ — the CAR vowel as in car, far, hard, start

Work in progress: R-colored vowels are the trickiest part of English pronunciation. Some words on this page may show unexpected alignments — we're working on improving accuracy.

Main spelling (~68%)

⟨ar⟩ ~68%

The spelling ⟨ar⟩ is highly reliable for this sound.

car far hard start park dark arm art smart star
Very predictable! When you see ⟨ar⟩, it almost always makes the /ɑr/ sound. The main exceptions are when ⟨ar⟩ is unstressed (like dollar, sugar), where it sounds like /ər/ instead.

Unusual spellings (~32%)

⟨ear⟩

A small group of common words use ⟨ear⟩ for this sound instead of the usual /ɪr/ (as in "hear").

heart hearth
Don't confuse with HEAR! Most ⟨ear⟩ words have the /ɪr/ sound (like hear, near, year). But heart and hearth are exceptions that use /ɑr/ instead.

⟨er⟩

Very rare — just "sergeant" in common usage.

sergeant
Truly irregular: "Sergeant" is spelled with ⟨er⟩ but pronounced with /ɑr/ — a remnant of older English spelling.

⟨aar⟩

From Afrikaans — one of the few English words starting with ⟨aa⟩.

aardvark
An aardvark
The aardvark — "earth pig" in Afrikaans. One of the few English words with ⟨aa⟩ → /ɑr/.

⟨arre⟩

French spelling — one common word.

bizarre