Spelling Words R Controlled Vowels

All 110 words

List 1: ar (car) 10

art Her art hangs in the school hallway.
barber The barber swept the floor after each haircut.
car The toy car zoomed under the couch.
dart Minnows dart through the shallow water.
far The lighthouse beam reaches far out to sea.
farm The farm stand sells fresh peaches.
partner My lab partner held the flashlight.
shark A shark swam past the glass tunnel.
star One bright star came out at dusk.
target Her arrow hit the center of the target.

List 2: or (corn) 10

corn Rows of corn rustled in the wind.
fork A plastic fork snapped in my salad.
horse A gray horse leaned over the gate.
order The alphabet song keeps the letters in order.
pitchfork The farmer lifted hay with a pitchfork.
shortcut We took a shortcut through the park.
snort The pig gave a happy snort.
sort Please sort the mail into two piles.
storm Hail from the storm bounced off the porch.
worn The knees of my jeans are worn.

Show all 110 words (90 more)

List 3: er (her) 10

deserve You deserve a rest after that long hike.
fern The fern on the porch needs water.
her The baker tied her apron.
observe We observe the birds from the window.
person One person can carry this light canoe.
reserve Campers reserve their spots in spring.
stern The captain stood at the stern of the ship.
swerve The bike had to swerve around a puddle.
verb The word jump is a verb.
verbal The coach gave a verbal warning.

List 4: er at the end (antler) 10

antler We found an antler in the woods.
duster She cleaned the shelf with a feather duster.
filter The filter keeps the fish tank clean.
folder A green folder holds my music.
jester The jester in the story wore a striped cap.
lumber A truck brought lumber for the new deck.
poster I hung a poster of the planets.
quiver The arrows rattled in the quiver.
shutter A loose shutter banged in the wind.
timber The cabin was built of heavy timber.

List 5: ir (bird) 10

bird That bird hops instead of walking.
birdseed We filled the feeder with birdseed.
blackbird A blackbird sang from the fence post.
chirping Crickets were chirping in the tall grass.
first The first pancake always sticks.
girl The girl in the red cap scored.
shirt He spilled juice on his clean shirt.
sir Excuse me, sir, you dropped your hat.
songbird The songbird woke us before sunrise.
twirling The dancer was twirling a ribbon.

List 6: ur (turn) 10

blurry The photo came out blurry.
burn The candles burn slowly on the cake.
churn The paddles churn the cream into butter.
cursor Move the cursor to the top of the page.
curve The road makes a sharp curve by the barn.
furnace The furnace hummed on the cold morning.
hurdle The runner cleared the last hurdle.
nurse The nurse checked the chart.
purple The sunset turned the clouds purple.
turn Each player gets one turn at bat.

List 7: air (chair) 10

airport The airport shuttle runs all night.
armchair Grandpa napped in the big armchair.
chair Pull your chair up to the table.
downstairs The dog waits downstairs every morning.
fairly The game was fairly easy to learn.
hair The wind blew my hair into my eyes.
hairbrush My hairbrush has a wooden handle.
pair A pair of swans glided past.
stair The cat sat on the bottom stair.
upstairs My bedroom is upstairs.

List 8: are (share) 10

barely The tiny boat barely fit two people.
beware The sign said beware of the dog.
care We take care of the class hamster.
declare The judges will declare a winner soon.
hardware A hardware drawer holds screws and hinges.
rarely It rarely snows in our town.
scare The mask did not scare the baby.
share We share one umbrella on rainy walks.
software We loaded new software on the laptop.
square Each tile is a perfect square.

List 9: ear (hear) 10

clear We waited for a clear night to stargaze.
clearly The owl was clearly visible on the branch.
fear He has no fear of the diving board.
hear We could hear the band from the parking lot.
near A heron stood near the reeds.
nearly The bridge is nearly a mile long.
rear Luggage goes in the rear of the van.
teardrop A teardrop rolled down her cheek.
weary The weary hikers rested on a log.
year Our tree grew a foot this year.

List 10: eer (deer) 10

career She began her career as a teacher.
cheer A loud cheer rose from the bleachers.
cheery A cheery fire glowed in the stove.
deer A deer nibbled the apple tree.
engineer The engineer checked the bridge plans.
mountaineer The mountaineer packed a rope and a tent.
puppeteer The puppeteer hid behind a curtain.
steer It is hard to steer a sled.
steering He gripped the steering wheel of the go-kart.
veer The trail will veer left at the creek.

List 11: ere (here) 10

adhere The stickers adhere well to glass.
cashmere The scarf is made of soft cashmere.
here Please hang your coat here.
interfere Loud music can interfere with reading.
mere A mere inch of snow fell.
merely I was merely asking a question.
persevere We chose to persevere and finish the climb.
severe A severe storm closed the bridge.
sincere The letter ended with a sincere wish.
sphere A basketball is a sphere.

How this list was compiled: Words chosen, sorted into 11 lists of 10 and given sentences for this site. The choice and the sorting are ours: no published list, program or workbook was opened or copied. SPELLINGS AND SOUNDS: every word was looked up on 3 October 2026 in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (ahdictionary.com), read for a second spelling on the headword line and for the sound or pattern its list teaches, and in Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org, CC BY-SA 4.0), where each has an English entry. Left out: perhaps and percent (the er is not stressed, and percent is also written per cent), forget (the or is not stressed), boulder (also bowlder), backyard (also back yard) and bark (a second word bark is also spelled barque). SOUND-ALIKES (7 words): horse (hoarse), hair (hare), pair (pare, pear), stair (stare), hear (here), deer (dear), here (hear). A pair is stored only where Wiktionary's homophones line gives it with no accent or region note and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary gives both words the same sounds; pairs that hold in some accents only, such as which and witch, are not stored; timber and timbre are left out because the dictionary's first pronunciation of timbre differs. SENTENCES are ours, name no person, and none repeats a sentence in another dataset of this site (checked on 3 October 2026). THE GRADE stored with each word (2 for Lists 1 to 6, 3 for Lists 7 to 11) is our suggestion and no standard's. Licence: own work

How it works

Spelling words with r-controlled vowels, sorted by spelling: 110 words in 11 lists of ten. Lists 1 to 6 cover ar, or, er, ir and ur; Lists 7 to 11 cover air, are, ear, eer and ere.

Read the full guide

Ar spelling words, then or, er, ir and ur

List 1 has the ar words (car, star, shark, target) and List 2 the or words (corn, storm, pitchfork). Lists 3 to 6 are the spelling words with er ir ur: her and antler, bird and songbird, turn and furnace. Stressed er, ir and ur share one sound, so each spelling keeps its own list.

Air and are spelling words, then ear, eer and ere

Lists 7 and 8 are the spelling words with the air sound: chair and airport, share and beware. Lists 9 to 11 spell one sound three ways, as in hear, deer and here.

Hear and here, deer and dear, hair and hare sound the same. The sentence read with each tells them apart.

Questions and answers

Which lists hold r controlled spelling words 2nd grade classes can use?

Lists 1 to 6, by our own estimate: car, corn, her, bird and turn are one-syllable words with ar, or, er, ir and ur. Lists 7 to 11, with air, are, ear, eer and ere, are a step harder.

Are there er controlled spelling words 2nd grade spellers can start with?

List 3 has her, fern, verb and stern, where er carries the stress, and List 4 has antler, poster and folder, where er ends the word. The grade is only our suggestion.

Is this a list of spelling words with bossy r?

Yes. Bossy r is a classroom name for an r that changes the sound of the vowel before it: the a in car, the o in corn, the i in bird. All eleven lists are built on it.

Are there eer ear and ere words spelling rules?

The lists teach the three by pattern, not by rule: ear in hear and nearly, eer in deer and steering, ere in here and severe. All thirty words have the same vowel sound before the r.