R-Controlled Vowels

     You might have noticed that vowels sometimes sound a little different when they come before the letter r. Today we will learn about these vowels, called r-controlled vowels.
 

 
   Here are some of the sounds that vowels make before the letter r:
   When e is followed by r at the end of a word, it has the same sound as in the word her.
baker      butter      fern      lantern
  The letters i and u have the same sound as er at the end of a word or before another consonant.
skirt      curl      purse     shirt      dirt        bird     burn      Saturday
   The letter o can have the same sound as er in many common words. This happens after w:
world     word     work
   It always has this sound in a syllable that doesn’t have the main accent:
color      horror
   Elsewhere, or sounds like the squawk vowel most of the time when it comes before r at the end of a syllable.
formal      corn      sort      stork
   The letter a sounds like the a in ma and pa before r in these words:
car      farm       park       star      part
   The silent-e rule works well with vowels followed by r:  long a + r = hare; long i + r = fire
   The letter u sounds like “ you” before r in these words:
pure     cure      endure   
   Long o + r does not have the sound of long o for most people, but sounds like the squawk vowel.
store      more     core     tore
    At the end of 2-syllable words, the ure sounds like er:
picture       creature      feature      nature
   The regular vowel teams work well before r: deer, hair;   oa + r has the same sound as the squawk vowel: roar
   Irregular vowel teams make different sounds before r. Most of the time, the vowel pair ea sounds like long -e before r:  fear, spear, near.