American English sound
/ɑr/: how to pronounce “ar” in car, park and heart
/ɑr/ is the sound in car, park and heart: the open vowel of “father” followed by the American R.
In American English the R is always pronounced, so car is never “cah”. Dropping it is the most common reason this sound sounds British or foreign.
/ɑr/
the “ar” sound
How to make the sound
- 1Start with the open “ah” of father: jaw dropped, tongue low.
- 2Move into the American R: tongue tip curling back or bunching up, touching nothing.
- 3Round your lips slightly as the R comes in.
- 4Let the R last to the end of the word: car-r, not “cah”.
- Tongue
- low-back
- Lips
- neutral
- Voice
- voiced
Hear it in words
Tap a word to hear it.
At the start
In the middle
At the end
How it's spelled
- ar: car, park, art
- ear (rare): heart, hearth
- uar: guard
Common mistakes
Dropping the R: “cah”
That's the British pattern. American English keeps the R in car, park and heart.
Rolling the R
A trilled or tapped R after the vowel sounds Spanish or Italian. The American R is smooth and touches nothing.
A rounded vowel, like “core”
Rounding the lips at the start turns car into core and far into for. Start with an open “ah”.
Minimal pairs
Each pair differs by one sound. If both words sound the same when you say them, practice this pair.
Try it
“Mark parked his car far from the garden.”
Record a sentence and get a score for every sound, /ɑr/ included. Free, no account.
Questions
Why does “heart” have /ɑr/ but “heard” has /ɝ/?
English spelling doesn't show it: ear is /ɑr/ in heart, /ɝ/ in heard and learn, and /ɪr/ in hear and near. Learn them by ear.
Do Bostonians say “pahk the cah”?
Traditional Boston and New York accents drop the R, but General American, the accent of most of the country and of national media, keeps it.