Sound Right

/ɜr/ (ɝ) — the BIRD vowel as in bird, her, word, turn

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.

What is the BIRD vowel?

The BIRD vowel is the stressed r-colored vowel — a longer, stronger "er" sound that appears in stressed syllables. It's written as /ɜr/ or /ɝ/ in IPA.

Stressed vs unstressed: Compare bird (stressed /ɜr/) with butter (unstressed /ər/). They're the same sound at different stress levels. The stressed version is longer and stronger.

Main spellings (~90%)

⟨er⟩ ~38%

The most common spelling for this sound.

her term verb nerve fern herd person certain

⟨ir⟩ ~18%

Common in many everyday words.

bird first girl shirt third stir fir skirt

⟨ur⟩ ~17%

burn church fur hurt nurse turn curtain murder

⟨or⟩ ~17%

This spelling only makes the BIRD sound after ⟨w⟩.

word work world worm worse worst worth
Only after ⟨w⟩! The spelling ⟨or⟩ only sounds like /ɜr/ when it follows the letter ⟨w⟩. In other positions, ⟨or⟩ makes a different sound — like in for or more.

Unusual spellings (~10%)

⟨ear⟩

About 8% of words — a common irregular spelling.

earn early earth heard
Don't confuse with HEAR! Most ⟨ear⟩ words have the /ɪr/ sound (like hear, near). But a few common words use /ɜr/ instead: early, earth, heard.

⟨our⟩

A handful of words from French use ⟨our⟩ for this sound.

journal journey courteous

⟨yr⟩

Rare — mostly in names and technical terms.

myrtle
Myrtle plant
Myrtle (Myrtus communis) — one of the few English words with ⟨yr⟩ → /ɜr/.

⟨olo⟩

One very common exception.

colonel
Truly irregular: "Colonel" is spelled like "colony" but pronounced like "kernel" — a quirk of English borrowing from both French and Italian.

/ɜr/ vs /ər/

Same sound, different stress! /ɜr/ (BIRD) and /ər/ (BUTTER R) are the same r-colored vowel — the only difference is stress level. /ɜr/ is stressed (longer, stronger), /ər/ is unstressed (shorter, weaker). Compare: bird (stressed) vs butter (unstressed ending), murder (stressed first, unstressed second).