Introducction.
Today we’re talking about word stress and -er ending words that are two or more syllables. The -er ending will always be unstressed. So it will be lower in pitch and quicker than the stressed syllable in the word. For example, ‘father’. Fath-er, fath-er. I’m sure you can hear the BIG-small contrast. So the stressed syllable will have shape in it, but the unstressed -er,-er, will be very flat, -er, and low in pitch. Father. This ending is written in IPA with the schwa and American R symbols. But you definitely don’t want to make a separate schwa sound: uh-rr, uh-rr, it’s just one sound, -er, -er. Let’s look at a few more example words. Louder. Loud-er, louder. Further, furth-er, furth-er. Further. Sister. Sist-er, sist-er, sister. Computer. Compud-er, computer. Ever, ev-er, ever. Over. Ov-er, over. Singer, sing-er, singer. So don’t forget, when you see this -er ending, to make it nice and short with just the rr sound in it. No other vowel, no shape. It’s a very flat, quick, low sound.
Nouns ending in -er
This ending is the most common. It's usually added to verbs to make nouns with the meaning ‘a person or thing that does something’, for example: builder, farmer, sprinkler, or beeper.
The -er ending can also be used to form nouns meaning:
- ‘a person or thing that has a particular quality or form’, for example:double-decker, two-wheeler, skyscraper
- ‘a person belonging to a particular place or group’, e.g. foreigner, prisoner
- ‘a person concerned with a particular thing', e.g. jeweller, lawyer, treasurer, mariner
Examples:
