Phonetics: ɪə

In British English, the phonetics /ɪə/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "ear" and "deer".

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɪə/ include the following:

• with "ear" clear - ear - fear - gear - near - tears - year;
• with "ee": beer - cheers!;
• others: here - mere - we're - weird;
• homophones: dear/deer - hear/here - peer/pier.

When using words containing this vowel sound, Spanish speakers tend to use /eə/, i.e. without practice, they tend not to distinguish between "beer" and "bear".

Written by NativeEnglish

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