"Near" and "care": the British glide vs the American R
Americans end “near” and “care” with an R sound, /ɪɹ/ and /ɛɹ/; standard British English drops the R and glides to a short “uh” instead, /ɪə/ and /eə/. Many younger British speakers go one step further and use a single long vowel, so “care” becomes /kɛː/. These words are common in polite, everyday English: “here”, “there”, “where”, “chair”, “hair”, “dear”.
All audio on this page is an AI voice (neural text-to-speech), one American and one British.
What happens to the R in “near” and “care”?
British English (Received Pronunciation) is non-rhotic: an R after a vowel is silent unless a vowel follows. In “near” and “care”, the vowel takes the place of the R. It becomes a centring diphthong, a glide that moves toward the middle of the mouth.
American English is rhotic: the R stays, and it colors the vowel before it.
| Word | American | British |
|---|---|---|
| near | /nɪɹ/ | /nɪə/ |
| clear | /klɪɹ/ | /klɪə/ |
| care | /kɛɹ/ | /keə/ or /kɛː/ |
| hair | /hɛɹ/ | /heə/ or /hɛː/ |
| chair | /tʃɛɹ/ | /tʃeə/ or /tʃɛː/ |
near American: British:
clear American: British:
care American: British:
hair American: British:
chair American: British:
Listen to the last part of each word. The American voice ends with the tongue pulled back for R. The British voice ends on an open, relaxed vowel.
This page goes deeper on one part of the R difference. For the R in “car” and “park”, read the R in “car”.
Hear it in a sentence
“Is the chair near the stairs?” has three words with these vowels: chair, near and stairs.
American: British:
In the British version, “stairs” has no R at all: /steəz/. The American version has an R in every one of the three words.
What a scorer hears
We scored both AI voices against the American English scoring accent. We used the same scoring engine and settings that AnyAccent uses in the app. For American English, the scorer grades each sound separately, including the R-colored vowel.
Example result: single words, scored as American English
| Word | American AI voice: word | British AI voice: word | British AI voice: vowel + R |
|---|---|---|---|
| hair | 100 | 87 | 81 |
| near | 100 | 96 | 92 |
| clear | 100 | 96 | 92 |
| care | 100 | 98 | 96 |
| chair | 100 | 98 | 96 |
How to read this:
- In every word, the lowest British score was on the vowel plus R, /ɪɹ/ or /ɛɹ/. That is the sound where the two accents differ.
- The gap was small except in “hair”. The American scorer still accepted the British vowels as close.
- On the full sentence, both voices scored over 95 against American English and 100 against British English.
Both voices are correct for their own accent. The scorer only marked them apart on this one sound.
The scores above are from single runs on AI voices. Your own scores will depend on your recording.
How to practise it
For the American /ɪɹ/ and /ɛɹ/
- Say the vowel, then move straight into the R: “nee-r”, “keh-r”.
- Pull the tongue back without touching the roof of your mouth, and round the lips a little.
- Hold the R to the end of the word. Do not let it fade into “uh”.
- Drill: here, near, clear, dear; care, hair, chair, there, where.
For the British /ɪə/ and /eə/
- Say the first vowel clearly: “ee” for near, “eh” for care.
- Then relax the tongue toward the middle, as in “uh”. Do not curl it back.
- Keep the glide short. “Near” is one syllable, not “nee-yuh”.
- Before a vowel, the R comes back: “near it” is /nɪər ɪt/, “care about” is /keər əˈbaʊt/.
Common questions
Why do British people say “cheh” for “chair”?
Because British English drops the R after a vowel. In modern southern British speech, the vowel in “chair” is often one long sound, /ɛː/, so “chair” sounds like “cheh” held longer.
Is “here” pronounced like “hear”?
Yes, in both accents. “Here” and “hear” are /hɪɹ/ in American English and /hɪə/ in British English.
Do “where” and “wear” sound the same?
In most modern American and British speech, yes. A few speakers, mainly in Scotland, Ireland and parts of the US South, start “where” with a breathy /ʍ/ and keep them apart.
Practise with a scorer
AnyAccent lets you pick the accent you practise against. For American English, you get sound-level diagnosis: the app names the sound you missed. For British English, you get word and sentence scores.
See the full sound guides for American English and British English.