What is the /ɪr/ Sound?
First, let's look at a few examples of words with the English /ɪr/ sound:
- ear
- earring
- weird
- theory
- near
- dear
According to Sounds American, the /ɪr/ sound is made by doing the following:
"To pronounce the /ɪr/ sound correctly, blend the /ɪ/ and /r/ sounds together.
Mouth: Open your mouth slightly.
Lips: First, slightly stretch your lips for the /ɪ/ sound. Then round them for the /r/.
Tongue: First, raise your tongue high in your mouth and push it forward for the /ɪ/ sound. Then raise the tip of your tongue towards the ridge behind your upper front teeth and curl it back for the /r/."
If you need more help articulating the /ɪr/ sound, check out this video to learn the correct tongue and mouth placement.
Practicing the /ɪr/ Sound
Everything you need to pronounce the English /ɪr/ sound correctly is on this page. Just follow the instructions.
What do you have to do?
Practice for 5 minutes a day for 7 days.
That’s it.
Your goal is to pronounce the /ɪr/ sound clearly and easily by the end of day 7.
Let’s do it!
This guide to the American English /ɪr/ sound is full of useful information. Click the link below to jump to the part you are looking for:
- Day 1 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Day 2 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Day 3 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Day 4 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Day 5 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Day 6 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Day 7 of the /ɪr/ sound
- Additional /ɪr/ sound resources
- PDF download of the /ɪr/ sound
Day 1: The /ɪə/ Sound
If you are ready, let’s start with the practice for day one.
It’s pretty simple.
Watch the video and follow along.
Listen and repeat.
🔊 Click here to listen to the audio version
Minimal Pairs
Your Goal: To feel the difference between the /ɪr/ sound and similar sounds like /eɘ/.
- hair - here
- dare - dear
- share - shear
- fair - fear
Vowel Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also improving your pronunciation of the English vowel sounds.
- leer - lair - liar - lure
- weird - word - wired
Syllable Stress Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also developing a better understanding of proper syllable stress.
- eerie
- earing
- merely
- miracle
Reduced Sounds Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also working on linking words and phrases together.
- Did you hear that eerie noise?
- I must have lost my earring somewhere near here.
Tongue Twister Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while improving your speaking speed and enunciation.
- Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.
- Dear deer, your career as a deer is over here.
Day 2: The /ɪə/ Sound
Just like day one, except simpler.
Watch the video and follow along.
Listen and repeat.
🔊 Click here to listen to the audio version
Minimal Pairs
Your Goal: To feel the difference between the /ɪr/ sound and similar sounds like /eɘ/.
- stare - steer
- lair - leer
- pair - peer
- air - ear
Vowel Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also improving your pronunciation of the English vowel sounds.
- near - now - knee - new
- deer - dare - dire - die
Syllable Stress Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also developing a better understanding of proper syllable stress.
- convenient
- ideally
- appearance
- industrial
Reduced Sounds Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also working on linking words and phrases together.
- You ought to be less severe.
- This kind of chameleon is really rare.
Tongue Twister Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while improving your speaking speed and enunciation.
- Here here here look at the seer on the tier.
- Deer have a fear of airplanes.
Day 3: The /ɪə/ Sound
Today will be the last day you only listen and repeat.
Tomorrow, you will have to start to speak.
But let’s focus on today.
Just like yesterday, watch the video and follow along.
Listen and repeat.
🔊 Click here to listen to the audio version
Minimal Pairs
Your Goal: To feel the difference between the /ɪr/ sound and similar sounds like /eɘ/.
- bear - beer
- spare - spear
- stare - steer
- chair - cheer
Vowel Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also improving your pronunciation of the English vowel sounds.
- sheer - share - shire - sure
- fear - fire - fair - fee
Syllable Stress Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also developing a better understanding of proper syllable stress.
- atmosphere
- biosphere
- disappear
- sincere
Reduced Sounds Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while also working on linking words and phrases together.
- Be sincere, was that one of your ideas?
- Ideally, I will see you this year.
Tongue Twister Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɪr/ sound while improving your speaking speed and enunciation.
- If she tears her dress on the stairs, I’m sure there’ll be tears.
- Weird-eared Ed appears near sharp shears.
Day 4: The /ɪə/ Sound
Time to speak.
You will notice that these are the words, phrases, and sentences you repeated on day one.
Today, your job is different.
Open up a Google Doc, enable voice typing and speak.
Watch the video to see how it works.
- hair - here
- dare - dear
- share - shear
- fair - fear
- leer - lair - liar - lure
- weird - word - wired
- eerie
- earing
- merely
- miracle
- Did you hear that eerie noise?
- I must have lost my earring somewhere near here.
- Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.
- Dear deer, your career as a deer is over here
Day 5: The /ɪə/ Sound
Let’s revisit the words, phrases, and sentences you practiced on day two.
Just like yesterday, open up a Google Doc, enable voice typing, and get ready to speak.
Let’s do it!
- stare - steer
- lair - leer
- pair - peer
- air - ear
- near - now - knee - new
- deer - dare - dire - die
- convenient
- ideally
- appearance
- industrial
- You ought to be less severe.
- This kind of chameleon is really rare.
- Here here here look at the seer on the tier.
- Deer have a fear of airplanes.
TIP*** Are there some words that the computer does not understand no matter how many times you say them? No worries, just skip it and move on. No one is perfect.
Day 6: The /ɪə/ Sound
You are so close to day 7.
Be proud that you have made it this far :)
In today’s lesson, let’s circle back to the words, phrases, and sentences you repeated on day three and practice saying them aloud.
- bear - beer
- spare - spear
- stare - steer
- chair - cheer
- sheer - share - shire - sure
- fear - fire - fair - fee
- atmosphere
- biosphere
- disappear
- sincere
- Be sincere, was that one of your ideas?
- Ideally, I will see you this year.
- If she tears her dress on the stairs, I’m sure there’ll be tears.
- Weird-eared Ed appears near sharp shears.
Day 7: The /ɪə/ Sound
Congratulations!!!
You have made it to the very last day of this /ɪr/ sound practice course.
Do you feel like your pronunciation of this sound is improving?
Let’s finish with a simple, but challenging exercise.
Just like you did on days 4, 5, and 6, open up a Google Doc and enable voice typing.
This time, try to get the technology to recognize these six tongue twisters.
- Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.
- Dear deer, your career as a deer is over here.
- Here here here look at the seer on the tier.
- Deer have a fear of airplanes.
- If she tears her dress on the stairs, I’m sure there’ll be tears.
- Weird-eared Ed appears near sharp shears.
Now, turn voice typing off and try to say each tongue twister as fast as possible.
Watch the video to learn how to go through this exercise.
Additional Resources: The /ɪr/ Sound
Words with the /ɪr/ sound
| Beginning | Middle | End |
| ear | appearance | near |
| earring | experience | dear |
| era | period | fear |
| eerie | theory | beer |
| eerily | series | deer |
| nearly | ear | |
| merely | pier | |
| mirror | here | |
| hero | clear | |
| zero | severe | |
| spirit | sphere | |
| material | interfere | |
| weird | biosphere | |
| beard | atmosphere | |
| fearful | hemisphere | |
| weary | persevere | |
| exterior | appear | |
| experiment | area | |
| mysterious | sheer | |
| serious | gear | |
| miracle | premier | |
| disappear | ||
| sincere | ||
| peer | ||
| souvenir | ||
| shear | ||
| cashmere | ||
| volunteer | ||
| mere | ||
| career | ||
| engineer | ||
| cheer |
Minimal Pair Collection
/eɘ/ and /ɪɘ/ (hair/here)
hair - here
dare - dear
share - shear
fair - fear
stare - steer
lair - leer
pair - peer
air - ear
bear - beer
spare - spear
stare - steer
chair - cheer
Vowel Collection
leer - lair - liar - lure
weird - word - wired
near - now - knee - new
deer - dare - dire - die
sheer - share - shire - sure
fear - fire - fair - fee
Syllable Stress Collection
- eerie
- earring
- merely
- miracle
- convenient
- ideally
- appearance
- industrial
- atmosphere
- biosphere
- disappear
- sincere
Reduced Sounds Collection
- Did you hear that eerie noise?
- I must have lost my earring somewhere near here.
- You ought to be less severe.
- This kind of chameleon is really rare.
- Be sincere, was that one of your ideas?
- Ideally, I will see you this year.
Tongue Twister Collection
- Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.
- Dear deer, your career as a deer is over here.
- Here here here look at the seer on the tier.
- Deer have a fear of airplanes.
- If she tears her dress on the stairs, I’m sure there’ll be tears.
- Weird-eared Ed appears near sharp shears.
Additional Resources
- Sounds American, /ɪr/ sound
- TEFLpedia ɪə (/ɪr/) sound
Additional Activities for All Sounds
Practice Three Words
Answer the following question:
What do you like to do in your free time?
Pick one, two, or three words from the word bank and include them in your response. If it helps, you may write out the example sentences with the word in context first.
Youglish Research
Visit the Youglish website. Pick a word or phrase you would like to practice. Enter it into the Youglish search bar. Find three examples of the word or phrase in context to shadow.
Teacher Time
During your next English speaking practice session with a teacher or conversation partner, have a list of three to five words you would like to use. Give yourself a point every time you use the word correctly in context and it is understood. Aim to score 5 points within the first 10 minutes (so the rest of the time you focus just on communicating).
Voice Typing
Write out three sentences with challenging words or phrases. Use Google Docs or any other software with the ability to turn speech to text. Read these sentences aloud and check to see if your pronunciation is correct.
***There are a ton of possibilities. These are just a few ideas. Use the word bank, tongue twisters, example sentences, and other resources on this page to continue to work on this sound.
If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments below. I read and respond to all of them.
Download the PDF version of this 7-day mini-course.
Plus the PDF-version of every single English sound for free.
