Do you confuse bear, beer, bird, and beard? Don't worry if you do it's a very common problem,
but I'm here to help. Welcome back to Pronunciation with Emma, in this video I'll be talking about
how to pronounce these four words in British English. At the end of the video I'll also
do a little quiz and then I'll share a tip with you on how you can remember these words
and which ones to pronounce in certain contexts. So you're not saying to the waiter "can I
have a beard, please?" when you mean "a beer". Or you need to shave your bird. Yeah. Shave
your bird. So let's start with bear. Bear. So this one has the diphthong /eə/. /eə/.
I don't pronounce that "r". I don't say "beaR". I don't say "bear". But I say "bear". /eə/.
Listen and see if you can repeat. Bear. /eə/. Bear. The second one is "beer". Beer. So not
"beer" or "beeR". But "beer". This has another diphthong /ɪə/. /ɪə/. It's the same pronunciation
as your ear. /ɪə/. Beer. So just listen and try and repeat. Beer. /ɪə/. Beer. So
this one is "beard". Beard. It has the same diphthong as "beer". Really it's very similar
to "beer" except for that final "d" sound at the end. Beard. /ɪə/. Beer. Beard. So
just have a listen and then try to repeat. Beard. /ɪə/. Beard. Then finally there's
"bird", and this has that really horrible "uhh" sound that I know some learners absolutely
detest, but it's there so you've gotta (got to) love it. You've just got to accept it.
So here we have the vowel /ɜː/. /ɜː/. /bɜː/. Bird. So I don't pronounce the "r". It's not
"biRd". It's not "bERd", or "beard", or "bEERd". I don't know how people pronounce it now.
I've lost track. I've heard so many different ways. But in British English, typically, it's
"bird". Bird. So just listen and try to repeat. Bird. /ɜː/. Bird. So my top tip to help
you remember when to pronounce each of these words is to imagine beard and beer. So think
of a bearded man holding a beer. A bird cannot hold a beer. It has a different vowel sound
so it will help you remember. A bear also cannot hold a beer. Maybe it can. Maybe a
bird and a bear could hold a beer. Has anyone seen a bird and a bear hold a beer? If you
have then let me know in the comments. So yeah, to try and remember, just think of "beer
and beard", they have the same vowel sounds. Keep them together and it will help you remember.
So now we're just going to do a little quiz to just to test to see how much you can remember
from this video. So, take a look at this word here. Can you tell me what this word is? It's
/bɪəd/. Beard /bɪəd/. So with this one we have the diphthong /ɪə/. /ɪə/. /bɪəd/. /bɪəd/. Don't forget that
the "r" is silent, not "beaRd" or "beard". How about this one? This one is /beə/. /beə/.
Again, forget that "r". "Bear". Bear. Ooo let's try this one. Any idea? This one is
/bɜːd/. "Bird". Again, forget the "r". I can't keep saying it enough. Forget the "r".
Don't try to pronounce it, it's just a vowel sound. /bɜːd/. "Bird". And the last one,
my favourite word. What is it? It's /bɪə/. /bɪə/. So again, forget the "r". It's not
"beeR", or "beeR", but /bɪə/. "Beer". So I hope that this video has helped you. Don't
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where I post daily British English pronunciation videos. So that's it from me in this video,
I hope you enjoyed it. I will see you next week. If you have, also, any words, and suggestions
for future videos, maybe some words that you have some problems with. Or some sounds that
you find difficult to pronounce or you're just not sure how to pronounce then also let
me know in the comments, and then I can make a video about them in the future just for
you!