Pronounciation of here

[Skippersocks]

Please can you help to resolve an ongoing dispute?

Does the word 'here' have one or two syllables?

Whilst we are at it, how about the word 'hour'?

TIA

I have never heard hear with two syllables, in fact I'm not sure how you can even make it sound as if it has two syllables.

Depends where you are from doesnt it? Like all words

Im in NI and here is one syllable as is hour. Both words also have r's in them too

He-ya, quick hard pronunciation with two syllables. I'd also say depends on where you come from.

I am being told that 'he-ya' is the most commonly used pronounciation for here as is 'ow-wa' for our.

Now I am being told that 'ow-wa' is how both hour and our is pronounced!

Hour/our have exactly the same pronunciation as the /h/ in hour isn't pronounced.

All of your examples technically have 2 syllables, but I agree that in some accents they would probably be pronounced with a sound more akin to one long utterance.

There is no 'more akin' about it - as Surly said, in NI, they have one syllable apiece. 'Hour' (or 'our') sounds like a pirate saying 'arrr', but with a slightly different vowel (in my accent, anyway).

Hour and our are pronounced the same, yes.

I'm struggling to imagine how Here and Hour COULDN'T be pronounced without two syllables! How can "here" be one syllable? I really can't imagine that. Maybe if you're vair posh you might drawl it out, like "hair"..?

Where I am, it's "hyur"

Or rather, with a dropped h. "It's by 'yur."

Rhymes with the things on the side of your head. Your yurs.

I pronounce hour and our differently sometimes.
Hour is always ow-uh. Our is either ow-uh or ar. I have no idea when I use either. Are is always ar.

I think in mackem it would be he-yah and ow-wah

I think they should have one...but I say hee-urr and ow-arr.

Father is very broad West Country - here is pronounced yer.
I pronounce it her-uh.

MaryMother are you from yur, yur where I live?

You could be from by yur, and you could say yur for here, ear and year!

Our can be like hour or are - probably say are more.

And of course the 'h' on 'here' is dropped in some parts of the country so the same as 'ear'. Though I doubt anyone would say that was correct.

When I have to test a child's spelling, it's the one word I have to lead them in to say for themselves. I gesture madly and say " Jayden! Come over...." and when they say the word 'here' in the gap I've left, I ask them to write the word they've just said. Some say hee uh and some say yir to rhyme with fur. I don't have to do that with any other word.

It entirely depends on where you are from.

I'm from Birmingham and the word 'here" has two syllables.

As does the word 'sure'.

A double vowel is called a diphthong. You find it in words like "my" (ai) or "toy" (oi). The dictionary gives a diphthong in "here" (hi*) where the asterisk stands for the soft sound or shwa. Not available on my ipad keyboard, sorry, but you write it like an upside-down and back-to-front e. You hear it at the end of the word "mother".
"Hour" is a triphthong or triple vowel. The dictionary gives (au*).
So you can say they are one and a half syllables long.
Class dismissed!
(I think it's fascinating, and if you're asking about regional differences, OP, just ignore me.)

DrankSangria - "All of your examples technically have 2 syllables, but I agree that in some accents they would probably be pronounced with a sound more akin to one long utterance."

Technically you are speaking a lot of codswallop. How on earth can our/hour have two syllables!

I'm Glaswegian and both words definitely have two syllables.

HEE-ur
OW-ur

MaryMotherOfCheeses - assume you are in South Wales, where here (yurr) sounds not only the same as ear (yurr) but also year (yurr).

Haha.

I'm not by yur but close. Only opened this thread to say I love how here is pronounced in a south welsh accent!

Both have 2 syllables.

He-uh rather than hiiiiiir
Ow-uh rather than aaaaah

Case closed!

Although I do this too:

SwedishEdith "Our can be like hour or are - probably say are more."

I would say here/hear with one syllable (hiiir) and hour with two (ow wa).