ER
as in bird
- bird
- birds
- birth
- burke
- burn
- burns
Vocalic R Words for Speech Therapy
Vocalic R is /r/ colored by a vowel — the er in bird, ar in car, or in corn. Many students who manage consonantal /r/ still struggle here. Each list below is matched on pronunciation, not spelling, and split by variant.
1433
AR
as in car
- arc
- arch
- are
- arm
- armed
- arms
OR
as in corn
- board
- boards
- bored
- born
- cord
- core
AIR
as in chair
- air
- bare
- bear
- bears
- care
- chair
EAR
as in deer
- cheers
- dear
- deer
- ears
- fear
- fears
IRE
as in fire
- buyer
- buyers
- dryer
- fire
- fired
- fires
RL
as in girl
- earl
- girl
- girls
- pearl
- berlin
- early
Why vocalic R gets its own lists
Vocalic R behaves differently from /r/ at the start of a word: the tongue position is shaped by the vowel, and each variant — AR, ER, OR, AIR, EAR, IRE — can succeed or fail independently.
Therapy usually probes each variant separately and drills the ones that break. Use the variant lists once the SLP has identified which contexts need work.
Word pronunciations are checked with the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.
All R word listsNeed these words on a printable worksheet?
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