Pronunciation rules of r syllable letter combination or, oor, oar, our and ow er

There are five r-syllable letter combinations composed of vowel o, namely or, oor, oar, our, and ow·er. These five letter combinations mainly have five pronunciations, namely /ör/, /ər/, / oor/, /our/ and /ou-er/, as shown in Table 4-18.

Table 4-18 Pronunciation rules for r-syllable letter combinations composed of vowel letter o

R syllable letter combination Pronunciation Example word Example word pronunciation My own example word
or /ör/ sport /’spört/
/ər/ word /wərd/
doc tor /’dǒk-tər/
oor /ör/ floor /flör/
/ǒor/ poor /pǒor/
oar /ör/ board /börd/
our /ör/ four /for/
/ər/ jour·ney /jər-nē/
col our /’kǔ-lər/
/ǒor/ tour /tǒor/
/our/ sour /sour/
ow·er /ou-ər/ flow·er /’flou-ər/

Among the five pronunciations of the r-syllable letter combination composed of the vowel letter o, ow·er has only one pronunciation, that is, /ou-ər/, as in the words flow·er and show·er (ou-er). In the following, we only discuss the other four r syllables formed by the vowel o, namely or, oor, oar and our.

First, the four r-syllable letter combinations formed by the vowel letter o can all be pronounced /ör/, as in the words sport, floor, board, and four (ör). Among them, oar has only this pronunciation. Second, both or and our can be pronounced /ər/, as in the words word and doc tor (ər) and jour ney and col our (ər). At this time, or and our can be located in stressed syllables, such as in the words word and jour · ney (ər), or in unstressed syllables, such as in the words doc · tor and col · our (ər)①. Again, oor and our