AR and OR Words – R-Controlled Vowel Spelling Practice
Learn and practice words with the R-controlled vowels AR and OR. When a vowel is followed by r, the vowel sound changes. Recognizing patterns such as ar in car and or in corn can help children read and spell many common English words.
What are R-controlled vowels?
An R-controlled vowel is a vowel followed by the letter r. The r changes the way the vowel is pronounced, so the vowel does not usually have its regular short or long sound.
Two common R-controlled vowel patterns are ar and or:
ar – car, star, farm
or – corn, fork, short
These patterns are sometimes called r-controlled vowels because the r influences the vowel sound.
The AR pattern
The letters ar commonly make the vowel sound heard in car and star.
Examples:
car, star, farm, park, dark, hard, arm, start
The ar pattern can appear in different parts of a word:
arm
farm
start
Learning to recognize ar as a unit can make these words easier to read and spell.
The OR pattern
The letters or commonly make the vowel sound heard in corn and short.
Examples:
corn, fork, short, storm, horse, north, sport, morning
As with ar, children can learn to recognize or as a common spelling pattern rather than thinking about the two letters separately.
Practice R-Controlled Vowels AR and OR
In SpellingCraft’s Listen and Spell exercise, children hear a word and type the correct spelling.
Words with ar and or are mixed and randomized, giving children practice recognizing and applying both R-controlled vowel patterns rather than learning the words in a fixed order.
Continue learning
After practicing AR and OR, continue with
R-Controlled Vowels (er/ir/ur),
or explore more Spelling Rules.
