AR and OR Sounds
These words have stress on the 1st syllable.
| Open AR | Long AR | OR Sound |
| bar code | legendary | border |
| garnish | monetary | borrow* |
| guard | narrow-minded* | force |
| hard-nosed | necessary | forecast |
| marketing | secretary | ordinary |
| stock market | temporary | quarter |
| target | vary | resource |
| hardware | voluntary | sort |
| * In this combined term, stress the 1st syllables in both words. | ||
Notes: “Hard-nosed” means strict or unforgiving. The ending -ary is often listed as -ery in dictionaries. This is because the A is reduced a little bit when not on the stress. However, the sound is closer to a long A than a short E. The word “borrow” can be pronounced with a long O or an Open A sound.
These words have stress on the 2nd syllable.
| AR Sounds | OR Sounds |
| disparity | according |
| gregarious | award*** |
| numeric* | performance |
| vocabulary | informal |
| department** | informative |
| laborious | |
| support | |
| * The -er spelling can have a long a sound when stressed. Example: vary and very are homophones.** This word has an Open A sound. All others have the Long A sound.***This word has an AR spelling, but it sounds like OR. The same is true for the war. | |
These words have stress on the 3rd syllable: guarantee, variation, nonparticipating, corporation and uniformity.
| 750 Business Words | AR and OR Main Page |
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