When a vowel is followed by an r, the r changes the sound that the vowel makes. The vowel is called an r-controlled vowel. Sometimes teachers refer to the “r” as “bossy r” because the r “bosses” the vowel to make a new sound.

When the “a” is followed by r, it makes the sound you hear in “bar” or “car”.  When the “o” is followed by the r, it makes the sound you hear in the word “corn”.  The “ir”, “ur” and “er” make the same sound /er/ as in the words “bird”, “fur” and “her”.   It is important to teach students to recognize and practice words containing r-controlled vowels.