AAAmerican Accent US
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Producing /ɛr/

How to produce /ɛr/

Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.

/ɛr/
/ɛr/
SQUARE r-colored
  • Lips: neutral
  • Tongue: mid-front
  • Voicing: voiced
💡 Start at /ɛ/ then add the American r curl.

Key production cues:

Mid-front vowel gliding into American r. Don't let it drop to /æ/.

Practice the sound in isolation

Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?

  1. Say /ɛr/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
  2. Say /ɛr/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /ɛr-ɛr-ɛr-ɛr-ɛr/.
  3. Compare your recording to a native reference.

Try a few isolated words

These words all contain /ɛr/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:

  • Beginning: care, care, care
  • Middle: care, care, care
  • End / in clusters: care, care, care
/ɛr/SQUARE r-coloredArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗

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care

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Producing /ɛr/ — Master the /ɛr/ vowel — SQUARE