AR (car) Sound Word List

The /ar/ sound is one of a class of four sounds often referred to as the r-controlled vowel sounds. The four sounds are /ar/ (car), /or/ (for), /er/ (her), and /err/ (merry). This class of vowel sounds has few spelling options.

Of the 7,000 words in the database constructed from a popular children’s dictionary, 56 of them are one-syllable words in which the vowel sound is /ar/. The only spelling of the /ar/ sound in one-syllable words in the database is the "ar" spelling. (Although the database doesn't include them, there are several words such as starred, charred, and scarred where the /ar/ sound is spelled "arr".)

Now, it is true that the /ar/ sound is technically two sounds, a combination of the /o/ sound in hot and the /r/ sound in run. But if every time a child sees "ar" in a word he should be saying /ar/ rather than puzzling over the sound represented by the letter "a", then it is best to teach "ar" as a digraph for an /ar/ sound. This decision is bolstered by the treatment of "ar" as a digraph in words like war. Otherwise, the letter "a" would have to represent the /oe/ sound.