Pronunciation of the 'er' sound

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er sound.png

This sound is made by keeping the tongue at the bottom of the mouth and in a relaxed position. Just open your mouth and say 'urhhh' as if you were at the doctors!

Here are some tips for making this sound:

  • It’s a long sound

  • The tongue is at the bottom of your mouth

  • Tongue is In the centre

  • Stretch out your lips

  • Relax your mouth

Words with 'er'

person, fern, berth, term, swerve, verse, kerb, concern, her, service, were, certain, determine, nerve

Words with 'ir'

circle, shirt, girl, stir, thirty, swirl, bird, thirsty, flirt, birthday, skirt, dirty, firm, fir

Words with 'ur'

Thursday, urban, return, turn, hurt, surface, curve, purple, curl, burn, Saturday, church, burst

Words with 'ear'

earth, earn, search, pearl, heard, learn, early

Words with 'or'

word, worth, worse, work, worst, 

Words with 'eur'

entrepreneur, connoisseur

Homophones

heard = herd

earn = urn

birth .= berth

fir  = fur

Here are some sentences to practise

1.  "Do you know that person?"

2. The car swerved at the kerb

3. The girl was thirsty.

4. Burt's birthday was on Thursday

5. It was worse than we expected

6.  How does it work?

7. The surface was dirty.

8. We returned early.

9. It's an urban project.

10. She had the last word

11. The lady wore a pearl necklace

12. The entrepreneur earned a lot of money

13. She's got curly hair.

14.We heard some birds

15. It's the most beautiful place on earth.

16. Have you seen 'The Colour Purple?' 

17.How do you determine what it's worth?

18. The police searched the area.

19. Ursula curled up on the sofa and read a book.

20. He's a wine connoisseur