We have been studying different types of sound produced by vowels. So moving further, in this session we would be working on the ‘R’ controlled words.
Basically, when a vowel is followed by an “r”, then the “r” changes the sound the vowel is making. Therefore, these vowels are called r-controlled vowels. You would also notice that these words are referred to as “bossy r”. This is because of the ‘R’ is a dominating vowel which makes a new sound when the word is pronounced.
Rules for Using R-Controlled Vowels
- When the vowel “a” is followed by the “vowel “r” then it will make the sound you hear with the words “bar” or “car”.
- When the “o” is followed by the letter “r”, it will make the sound you will hear while pronouncing the word “corn”.
- The words “ur”, “ir”, and “er” makes the same sound of /er/. For instance, you can listen to the words “bird”, “fur”, and “her”.
| Note: It is important for you to learn to recognize and practice words containing r-controlled vowels. |
Therefore the controlled “R” words are the words that are controlled by the letter “R”. Let’s understand this in a better way through examples.
Most of the controlled “ar” words are like: “Bar”, “Car”, “Far”, “Hard”, and also “star”. All these words produce the “ar” sound with the letter “R”.
When you observe the Long A word, then they are not controlled by the letter R and make the “air” sound. For instance, you can check the words like – “Air”, “Fair”, “Care”, “Dare”, “Stare”, “Scare”.
R Controlled Syllables – “Er” , “Ir”, “Or” and “Ur” Sound
- All the above words make “er” sound. Some of the examples of the Controlled R words are: “Water”, “Her”, “Later”, “Winter”.
- Examples of “Ur” controlled R words – “Fur”, “Purr”, “Turn”, and “Burn”.
- Examples of the “Ir” controlled R words are: “Girl”, “Bird” and “Third”.
Now let us see some examples of the long vowel “er”, “ir”, “ur” which is not controlled by the letter R.
- Word examples of the word “er” that produce the sound “ear” – Here, Peer, Steer, or Ear.
- Word example of the word “ir” that produce the sound “l-er” – Fire, Tire, Hire, Wire.
- Word example that produces the sound “you-r” – Cure, Pure, Furious.
- The “or” sounding words are Or, For, Born, Sport, Thorn.
Let’s have a list of words where sound is controlled by r following the vowel.
List of Bossy R-Controlled Vowel Words
| apart | The three friends were never seen apart. * |
| hardly | He mumbled on the telephone so quietly that I could hardly hear a word. |
| sharp | That knife looks very sharp. |
| storm | The trees shook in the storm. |
| thorn | You must not pluck the rose with thorns. |
| first | Her first dog was a poodle. |
| curb | A curb is on the side of a sidewalk. * |
| batter | Make a batter from flour and milk. |
| girl | Sue is a very slim girl. |
curl | Her hair began to curl. |
ever | Have you ever broken a bone? |
burn | Be careful not to burn yourself on the candle. |
| sports | If you are in school then take part in all the sports activities. |
| scarf | You should drive slow to save the scarf from strong wind. |
| harmed | You should ensure not to harm street animals. |
| porch | You pulled a leaf off the aloe vera plant beside the porch, split it and applied the gel to the cut. |
| park | There are a lot of controversy over whether or not wolves and tigers should be released into the park. |
| stir | You can put all the chocolate into a bowl, then stir in a ladleful of the sauce from the casserole. |
Conclusion:
Now, you have understood properly about the R controlled words and how they are usually pronounced. With this session, you can enhance your pronunciation skills and also help others. Stay tuned to Englishbix.com for more updates.