YEAR vs. EAR - American English Pronunciation (EAR vs. HEAR)

Can you hear the difference between YEAR and EAR? The Y Consonant can be hard to detect. Learn how to say these two words differently and improve your American English pronunciation.

AMAZING tips to sound more natural speaking English

Improve your American Accent / spoken English at Rachel's English with video-based lessons and exercises.

Cải thiện nói tiếng Anh Mỹ / 改善美式英語的發音 / 미국 영어 발음 향상 / アメリカ英語の話し言葉のアクセントを向上させる / Улучшение произношения американского английского языка / Meningkatkan berbicara bahasa Inggris Amerika / Melhore sua pronúncia do inglês americano / Mejora tu pronunciación en Inglés Americano / बात अमेरिकी अंग्रेजी में सुधार / تحسين لهجتك الأمريكية الإنجليزية / שפר את המבטא האמריקאי שלך

...with Rachel's English!

subscribe:

Help us caption & translate this video!

[zirenfeng]

I haven't noticed that I mispronounced 'year' for ages until my Australian friend pointed it out today. He demonstrated many times I still couldn't tell the difference. Now I finally get it. Thank you so much!

[saulosobrosa]

A good tip for Brazilians: Try to pronunciate the following sounds in Portuguese

Iá
Ié
Ií
Ió
Iú

So the pronunciation of Year is like the sound of "Ií" in this exercise, where the pronunciation of "Ear" is like the sound o a pure "í".

[atraest]

Something I discovered is to cut "Yeah" in half and attach "Ear" to the end. The "Ye" in "Year" has the same pronunciation principle of "Ye" in "Yeah".

[v.von.vagabonde]

Love how you explain things! Calm and clear.

[samircaldasaiala]

As i am brazilian the deference is so slight! It is very difficult pronounce

[Gastonag]

The mouth position capture helps a lot; sometimes, I'm able to distinguish between sounds, but I lack the technique to actually produce one of the two.
Do to my line of work I have to say the phrase "Year over Year" constantly. Who knows what people on the other end actually hear me say. Thank you Rachel, your videos are always insightful.

[yuminator]

My kids always makes fun of me (because my husband does) with these. When I say "you" and keep the same shape of the mouth and say "year" it seemed to help. The break down at first seemed complex but made so much sense. I can see why my speech therapist friends are so picky with training muscles around the vocal chord too because I could feel the different muscles working with concentrating on the difference in the pronounciation of these words.
Thank you so much for this!!

[redmoon]

I tried making this sound for like 3 yars ( haha ) and never learned it but now I can see the difference and could actually reproduce it
Thank you so much Rachel!

[ZenyWorld]

I am Brazilian living in the US and this word is the MOST ULTRA POWERFUL SUPER MEGA INSANE MASTER BLASTER SHAMPOO HARDEST WORD in this world. My American friend (a teenager with 14yrs) already tried to teach me this word for at least 3 hours. His dad (my friend as well) got mad watching he trying to teach me. Sometimes I got the correct pronunciation, we celebrated... but after the next try... wrong again. So I found this video and I'll try to learn, this time with a adult and english teacher. I'll reply my comment after this video and say if I really understand or no. Let's go!

[aldair_aa]

Hi rachel, I have a suggestion.
Can you please make a video about the pronunciation differences with the following words:
-Dog
-Duck
-Dock
-Dug
please, I'll appreciate if you make a video about this

[rahmiastuti]

I've tried so many times to say the word "year" on application but I could't then I search the way how to pronounce this.. I found this video.. after that I backed to try and I got the score 92.. U are cool teacher ever.

[luisricardominghetti]

your voice is insanely beautiful and pleasant to hear., and it makes us to learn more and more. Thank you so much🙏

[leahmilton]

A bit hard to pronounce correctly but it helps me a lot, Thank you so much.🤗

[mkush]

Thanks a lot for this video. I’m a non native English speaker and my Australian mentor was laughing at me when I pronounced as new “ier”. I felt so down and only your video made me realise my mistake 👍

[chandanachar]

Hello Rachel


I need to thank you for making me understand the different sounds between these words. This one thing I wasn't able to differentiate but you made it to very simple.


Keep up doing the good work out there!

[Richar]

Thank you so much! After watching many videos, you are the best.

[holandamonicace]

many thanks for this video!!!.. All Brazilian learnets appreciate!

[nikobellic]

Thanks so much for the video! For someone who was born and raised in Japan, learning to pronounce English vowels/consonants is so tough but thanks to you I can finally differentiate between E and Y and pronounce them properly! I've been learning English over a year and all this time I didnt know the difference between these words and I've been mispronouncing most of the words that start with Y lol There's still so many words that I dont know how to pronounce properly like ER, so I'm gonna need to watch your video about it too lol

[jameszeng]

Thank you so so much. I've been waiting for these three words video for so long. Appreciate it, Rachel! :)

[valdirbergamobergamo]

Yes, now the difference is clear, very clear. And where is your English pronunciation from? It is wonderful, I will study it carefully, it sounds as music. Thanks a lot, prosper always !!!