How to pronounce far in American English

IPA /fɑr/ Syllables 1 · far Stress 1st syllable
FAR
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Americans pronounce far as FAR (/fɑr/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The star is far away" or "It is not far from here" — more examples below.

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Clarity
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Stress
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Intonation
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Fluency
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Common mistakes

Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.

Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "far".

1 syllable, 2 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

f/f/

Lift your bottom lip to touch the very bottom of your top front teeth. Blow air through this contact point without voicing.

Mouth position for /f/ as in FAN
ar/ɑr/

Open wide for the 'ah' vowel. Lift the tongue back and up while flaring the lips for the 'r'.

In real conversation

Hear "far" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"Are we far from the smart market?"
ar wee FAR fruhm dhuh SMART MAR·kuht
"As far as I know, the meeting is still scheduled for ten."
uhz FAR uhz ahy NOH dhuh MEE·duhng ihz STIHL SKEH·joold fer TEHN
"How is the new job treating you so far?"
HOW ihz dhuh noo JAHB TREE·duhng yoo SOH FAR
"It is not far from here."
iht ihz NAHT FAR fruhm HEER
"The star is far away."
dhuh STAR ihz FAR uh·WAY
"The army marched far into the dark garden."
dhee AR·mee MARCHT FAR IHN·too dhuh DARK GAR·dn
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Watch out

Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.

The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.

01

Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.

Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.

… (no R)r (curl the tongue)
Questions

Questions people ask about this.

How do I pronounce the R in "far"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "far" different from British English?
American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "FAR" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.

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