are/our

[mamadou]

My DS has been reading to me and pronouncing our as 'r', does this matter? I tried to get him to say 'hour', but he gets upset when I correct him about it - he is only 5.

My concern is that he won't know the difference later on between are and our - especially when it comes to writing. But should I just leave him and stop being picky?

Does it matter how he pronounces it? I think I often say 'r' too. Is that a lazy error on my part, or can you say both and leave the spelling for later ?

At 5 any reading is to be applauded..corrections are for later when reading is more established. Many young children mispronounce words..as long as they can read, and understand what they are reading, they are doing just fine!

I would leave it. I am a parent helper at school and most 4/5 year olds have a word that they pronounce incorrectly purely because of age. My son's pronounciation of "th" words are dodgy and I won't be doing anything until he's older- juniors maybe.

Thank you for your replies. I needed some reassurance about it. Felt like a daft question, but it's always silly little things where I 'come a cropper'- need to stop making mountains out of mole hills and just relax. Thanks again for posts :)

My son used to pronounce 'our' as 'r' too - unusual where we live (Geordie accent - pronounced 'owah') but I soon realised he was copying his teacher's polite pronunciation.

He also used to read 'the' as 'thah' - again teacher's pronunciation.

He's doing A level English now so it hasn't had any adverse effects

I do sympathise. My ds (6) is stuck on "I put dis dare, den you put dat dare". We all, at home and school can talk properly - I dink.

I pronounce "our" and "are" the same and have never had a problem with it - maybe it is a regional thing? I wouldn't bother correcting it at all!

the whole of Northern Ireland says "arr" too, wouldn't worry too much at 5. Does he distinguish between the two words written down?

My husband does what I think is called 'T H fronting' so pronounces three as 'free' and it drives me mad. I know it's petty of me but it really annoys me and I am determined that ds's won't do it. Ds1 is 5 and he does it a bit, but his speech isn't overly clear anyway so I'm hoping he will pronounce things properly when his speech is more developed.