Please note: some r-controlled vowel sound generalisations may vary based on accent/dialect. Wordabase has been formed from the perspective of an Australian accent. /eer/ is considered to be an r-controlled vowel phoneme in Australia. However, in other parts of the world, it is segmented as ee-r.
R-Controlled EER at a glance:
- Words with er sound include cereal, material, serious
- Words with ear sound include ear, beard, year
- Words with eer sound include cheer, steer, career
- Words with ere sound include here, sphere, interfere
- Words with ier sound include fierce, pier, tier
Spelling Frequencies:
- er ā 32%
- ear ā 25%
- eer ā 18%
- ere ā 14%
- ier ā 7%
Rare Spelling Patterns:
- ir (souvenir)
- eir (weird)
Common Spelling Generalisations or Patterns:
- er is typically used in the middle of words e.g. cereal, serious, experience
- ear is typically used at the end of words or syllables e.g. dear, yearly
- eer is typically used at end of a word or syllable e.g. jeer, peer, veer
- ere is typically used at end of a word e.g. here, sphere
- ier is found in the middle or end of words e.g. fierce, tier