Words ending -er, -or, and -ar

Words ending -er, -or, and -ar

There are lots of words in English which end with the -er sound.

But when you listen to these words you can't be sure whether the sound is made by -er, -or or -ar.

There's no easy rule but there are a few helpful word patterns:
    1. There are more than ten times as many words ending with -er than -or and -ar together.
    2. Verbs ending in a silent e usually change to nouns by ending -er:
            

dive/diver    wade/wader    write/writer    avenge/avenger

    3. -er is also the most common way of ending a word for someone carrying out an action:

Action	Person carrying out the action
reporting	reporter
playing	player
fighting	fighter
listening	listener
printing	printer
cleaning	cleaner

4. -or is used when the base word ends in -ate, -ct, -it :

calculate/calculator    create/creator    investigate/investigator   contract/contractor    reflect/reflector    conduct/conductor     visit/visitor    exhibit/exhibitor    edit/editor

5. There is no especially useful pattern to recognize words that end in -ar except to say that many of them finish with   -lar:
               regular    popular    similar    pillar
But other than that it's just a matter of memorizing the -ar words as you come across them.

Common Nouns ending in -or		Nouns in -ar
accelerator actor administrator auditor calculator collector commentator competitor conductor conqueror conspirator constructor contractor councillor counsellor decorator director editor educator elevator escalator governor indicator inspector inventor investigator	investor legislator mediator narrator navigator objector operator oppressor orator perpetrator processor professor projector protector radiator refrigerator sailor spectator supervisor surveyor survivor translator vendor ventilator ventilator visitor	altar beggar burglar bursar calendar caterpillar cedar cellar collar dollar grammar guitar hangar liar mortar nectar pillar popular    regular scholar similar vicar vinegar