Unpredictable Pronunciations of Vowel+R in English

You’ll just have to memorize them….

 

-ER spelling is pronounced -AIR as in [chair]

inherit, inheritance, inherent, whereby, thereby, whereas, error,

-ER spelling is pronounced -EAR as in [fear]

coherent, coherence, criteria

-AR spelling is pronounced -ER as in [her]

straightforward, research, similar, summary, supplementary

-AR spelling is pronounced -AIR as in [chair]

area, variables, primary, apparent, aware, welfare, military, preliminary, contrary, voluntary, guarantee, paradigm, arbitrary, clarify