What is the /ɜ/ Sound?
First, let's look at a few examples of words with the English /ɜ/ sound:
- urgent
- earth
- verb
- girl
- fur
- per
According to Rachael’s English, the /ɜ/ sound is made by doing the following:
"the corners of the lips come in, pushing the lips away from the face. The middle part of the tongue lifts towards the roof of the mouth in the middle. The front of the tongue hangs down, but it’s drawn back a bit. So, it’s not touching anything. As the tongue lifts in the middle, it may be close to the roof of the mouth without touching it, or it may touch the sides of the roof of the mouth, or the insides or bottom of the top teeth."
If you need more help articulating the /ɜ/ sound, check out this video to learn the correct tongue and mouth placement.
Practicing the /ɜ/ Sound
Everything you need to pronounce the English /ɜ/ 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 /ɜ/ sound clearly and easily by the end of day 7.
Let’s do it!
This guide to the American English /ɜ/ sound is full of useful information. Click the link below to jump to the part you are looking for:
- Day 1 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Day 2 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Day 3 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Day 4 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Day 5 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Day 6 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Day 7 of the /ɜ/ sound
- Additional /ɜ/ sound resources
- PDF download of the /ɜ/ sound
Day 1: The /ɜ/ 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 /ɜ/ sound and similar sounds like /ɑ:/ or /ʌ/.
- cur - car
- fir - far
- hurt - hut
- curb - cub
Vowel Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also improving your pronunciation of the English vowel sounds.
- hurt - hit - hat - hot
- birth - bath - booth
Syllable Stress Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also developing a better understanding of proper syllable stress.
- transfer
- entrepreneur
- prefer
- murder
Reduced Sounds Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also working on linking words and phrases together.
- Did you transfer the money? It’s urgent.
- Would you like to go to the church sermon?
Tongue Twister Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while improving your speaking speed and enunciation.
- Mister Burn spurred her to be a chauffeur.
- The first birds I heard were the blackbirds.
Day 2: The /ɜ/ 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 /ɜ/ sound and similar sounds like /ɑ:/ or /ʌ/.
- hurt - heart
- burn - barn
- bird - bud
- burst - bust
Vowel Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also improving your pronunciation of the English vowel sounds.
- turn - torn - tan - ton - tin
- first - fist - feast - fast
Syllable Stress Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also developing a better understanding of proper syllable stress.
- surprise
- determine
- worthless
- earthquake
Reduced Sounds Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also working on linking words and phrases together.
- I have to say that I prefer the other service.
- When did you hear about the murder curse?
Tongue Twister Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while improving your speaking speed and enunciation.
- Larry Hurley, a burly squirrel hurler, hurled a furry squirrel through a curly grill.
- A nurse unearthed a nest.
Day 3: The /ɜ/ 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 /ɜ/ sound and similar sounds like /ɑ:/ or /ʌ/.
- perk - park
- first - fast
- curt - cut
- burn - bun
Vowel Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also improving your pronunciation of the English vowel sounds.
- urge - age - edge
- per - pair - peer - paw
Syllable Stress Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also developing a better understanding of proper syllable stress.
- urgent
- herself
- perfect
- murder
Reduced Sounds Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while also working on linking words and phrases together.
- Surprise, I got you something perfect!
- How did you determine the place it occurred?
Tongue Twister Collection
Your Goal: To practice the /ɜ/ sound while improving your speaking speed and enunciation.
- Sure, sir, the ship's sure shipshape, sir.
- Her girl stirred the worst Earth.
Day 4: The /ɜ/ 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.
- cur - car
- fir - far
- hurt - hut
- curb - cub
- hurt - hit - hat - hot
- birth - bath - booth
- transfer
- entrepreneur
- prefer
- murder
- Did you transfer the money? It’s urgent.
- Would you like to go to the church sermon?
- Mister Burn spurred her to be a chauffeur.
- The first birds I heard were the blackbirds.
Day 5: The /ɜ/ 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!
- hurt - heart
- burn - barn
- bird - bud
- burst - bust
- turn - torn - tan - ton - tin
- first - fist - feast - fast
- surprise
- determine
- worthless
- earthquake
- I have to say that I prefer the other service.
- When did you hear about the murder curse?
- Larry Hurley, a burly squirrel hurler, hurled a furry squirrel through a curly grill.
- A nurse unearthed a nest.
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 /ɜ/ 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.
- perk - park
- first - fast
- curt - cut
- burn - bun
- urge - age - edge
- per - pair - peer - paw
- urgent
- herself
- perfect
- murder
- Surprise, I got you something perfect!
- How did you determine the place it occurred?
- Sure, sir, the ship's sure shipshape, sir.
- Her girl stirred the worst Earth.
Day 7: The /ɜ/ Sound
Congratulations!!!
You have made it to the very last day of this /ɜ/ 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.
- Mister Burn spurred her to be a chauffeur.
- The first birds I heard were the blackbirds.
- Larry Hurley, a burly squirrel hurler, hurled a furry squirrel through a curly grill.
- A nurse unearthed a nest.
- Sure, sir, the ship's sure shipshape, sir.
- Her girl stirred the worst Earth.
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 /ɜ/ Sound
Words with the /ɜ/ sound
| Beginning | Middle | End |
| urgent | verb | fur |
| earth | nerve | per |
| early | term | pur |
| earn | service | were |
| urban | surprise | her |
| urchin | certain | fir |
| urban | concern | infer |
| urge | determine | stir |
| urn | perfect | refer |
| irk | burn | transfer |
| urbane | person | confer |
| earthy | search | occur |
| earthquake | heard | prefer |
| earthscraper | third | demur |
| earthnut | learn | entrepreneur |
| hurt | ||
| murder | ||
| shirt | ||
| girl | ||
| worst | ||
| herb | ||
| word | ||
| curse | ||
| church | ||
| sermon | ||
| vertical | ||
| turn | ||
| herself | ||
| burglar | ||
| worthless |
Minimal Pair Collection
Minimal Pair /ɑ:/ and /ɜ/ fast first
car - cur
far- fir
heart - hurt
barn - burn
park - perk
fast - first
ward - Word
bard - bird
bath - birth
farm - firm
/ɜ/ and /ʌ/ (hurt/hut)
hurt - hut
curb - cub
bird - bud
burst - bust
curt - cut
burn - bun
first - fussed
shirt - shut
term - tum
surfer - suffer
Vowel Collection
hurt - hit - hat - hot
birth - bath - booth
turn - torn - tan - ton - tin
first - fist - feast - fast
urge - age - edge
per - pair - peer - paw
Syllable Stress Collection
- transfer
- entrepreneur
- prefer
- murder
- surprise
- determine
- worthless
- earthquake
- urgent
- herself
- perfect
- murder
Reduced Sounds Collection
- Did you transfer the money? It’s urgent.
- Would you like to go to the church sermon?
- I have to say that I prefer the other service.
- When did you hear about the murder curse?
- Surprise, I got you something perfect!
- How did you determine the place it occurred?
Tongue Twister Collection
- Mister Burn spurred her to be a chauffeur.
- The first birds I heard were the blackbirds.
- Larry Hurley, a burly squirrel hurler, hurled a furry squirrel through a curly grill.
- A nurse unearthed a nest.
- Sure, sir, the ship's sure shipshape, sir.
- Her girl stirred the worst Earth.
Additional Resources
- Rachel’s English Video on the /ɜ/ sound
- TEFLpedia /ɜ/ 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.
