'Were' and 'wore' sound the same to me.
Is it true at native english users' ears?
from dictionary: [wɔ:r] for wore and [wə́:r] for were
Pronunciation – Difference Between ‘Wore’ and ‘Were’
pronunciationvowels
pronunciationvowels
'Were' and 'wore' sound the same to me.
Is it true at native english users' ears?
from dictionary: [wɔ:r] for wore and [wə́:r] for were
Best Answer
No, they do not sound the same to native speakers. There's a striking difference between 'were' and 'wore'.
British English
Were: In British English, 'were' in its strong form (or slow speech) is pronounced with the open-mid central unrounded vowel /ɜː/. In its weak form, it's pronounced with a schwa /ə/.
Wore: It's pronounced with the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔː/ (rhymes with war, sore, law).
Note that in Southern British English, they're pronounced without the /r/ sound because British English is non-rhotic.
American English
Were is pronounced with an r-coloured (rhotacised) vowel1: with /ɝ/ in its strong form and /ɚ/ in its weak form. (The rhotacised versions of central vowels are more common than others.)
Wore is pronounced with the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/ followed by the consonant /ɹ/
Another important difference is that of vowel roundedness; the vowel in wore is rounded while that of were isn't.