How to Pronounce -er Endings

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:

To form the comparative, we use the -er suffix with adjectives of one syllable:

It’s colder today than yesterday.

It was a longer holiday than the one we had last year.

Sasha is older than Mark.

type of adjective	comparative	superlative
most adjectives	add -er: cheaper, richer, smaller, younger	add -est: cheapest, richest, smallest, youngest
adjectives ending in -e	add -r: finer, nicer, rarer	add -st: finest, nicest, rarest
adjectives with one vowel + one consonant:	double the final consonant and add -er: bigger, hotter, thinner	double the final consonant and add -est: biggest, hottest, thinnest

Note the pronunciation of these comparatives and superlatives:

1. long /lɒŋ/ longer /lɒŋgə(r)/ longest /lɒŋgəst/
2. strong /strɒŋ/ stronger /strɒŋgə(r)/ strongest /strɒŋgəst/
3. young /jʌŋ/ younger /jʌŋgə(r)/ youngest /jʌŋgəst/

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