Decoding exercises: "ar"

The letter combination "ar" has several different pronunciations, mainly /ɑːr/ and /r/. 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 /r/: 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
 * /r/: 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 /r/: 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/ /r/: library, necessary, primary, temporary
 * /r/ (silent "a"), /r/: military, secretary
 * /r/ /ær/: parent
 * towards /təˈwɔːrdz, tɔːrdz/

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 /r/ or /ær/ are pronounced alike (either [r] or [r]).

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