How to pronounce /ɜː/

vowel · voiced · 🇬🇧 Mostly British

Practice target: RP — Received Pronunciation

Simplified illustration, not measured anatomy. Use the written cue and recorded examples together.

How to make it

British NURSE vowel: long, central, and non-rhotic. Keep the tongue relaxed and do not add /r/.

No universal L1 substitution is asserted; personalize from the learner's measured baseline.

Use this repeatable synthesized model for the controlled word set. It is a practice reference, not a universal answer key for every speaker.

“nurse, bird. nurse, bird.”

No R sound in “nurse”? That’s correct: RP (Received Pronunciation)drops an R that isn’t followed by a vowel (“car” sounds like “cah”).

Record the controlled word set and receive automated practice feedback. Scores are estimates, not expert or clinical diagnoses.

Reference audio only: this sound is accent-sensitive, so compare it with the named target variety rather than treating TTS as a universal answer key.

Choose a scene, then try one example word in a natural reply. This focus is self-directed, not a sound-specific assessment.