Bossy R Words

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After short and long vowels, your child needs to learn Bossy R. Grab a free printable list and chart to help your child read bossy R Words.

Not long ago, a friend texted me a photo of a story her son was reading for school. He was struggling.

I looked at the photo of the story and asked, “Has his teacher taught Bossy R?”

She texted back, “I don’t know what that is. I don’t think so.”

Here’s the thing, if you have a struggling reader, or if you want your child to be a good speller, they need to know Bossy R Words.

So check out the free Bossy R Words List and Bossy R Words Chart below and learn everything you need to know about Bossy R Words.

Balck and what text reads bossy r words with red background. A clipboard on a wooden background displays a list of 100 bossy r words.

Bossy R Words

When you teach phonics step-by-step, Bossy R vowels are an important step.

Bossy R Words is a more memorable term for children than the official term: r-controlled vowels.

What are R-Controlled Vowels?

The rule for bossy R words is that the /r/ sound influences the vowel so much, it creates a new sound. So we say that R is bossy.

What are the 3 R-Controlled Sounds?

The Bossy R Sounds are:

  • /ar/ like car, star, and art.
  • /ir/ like her, bird, and hurt.
  • /or/ like for, corn, and thorn.

text reads bossy r rounds. Five yellow flashcards on a wooden background have the text ar, or, er, ir, ur.

How you do teach Bossy R to Kids?

The main way I teach all phonics skills is with these printable flashcards. They are available in Sound School, my foundational knowledge reading course.

But you can DIY some with index cards and a marker.

I simply say, “These are the letters a and r. Together they spell the sound /ar/. Repeat the sound /ar/.”

I repeat this process with the remaining four phonograms (or letters that spell a sound):

  • er
  • ir
  • ur
  • or

For typical readers, a few repetitions will be enough. I showed the phonogram ar to my 6-year-old son and he was reading words like far, bar, car, farm, barn, and cart immediately.

However, for struggling or dyslexic readers, you’ll probably need to do a bunch of practice.

Then we use the bossy r flashcards and our consonant flashcards to build words. We blend those sounds into words.

Here we read the word bird built by the phonogram cards b, ir, and d.

You can also use this free Bossy R Words Chart found below with your child at home. Just say the letters, the keyword, and the sound.

It sounds like this: “AR. Car. /ar/.”

You repeat with the other sounds. It becomes a type of chant!

bossy r words list printable and bossy r vowel anchor chart are displayed on a gray wooden background. A red half-circle says "FREE."

Bossy R Words Chart

You can grab this free printable chart in the box below. This bossy R printable anchor chart will also help your child or students with spelling.

As they spell a new word like “farm,” they can pull apart, or segment the sounds, into /f/ /ar/ /m/.

If you have this chart handy, they are more like to spell the /ar/ sound with the letters AR instead of just the single letter R.

Bossy R Words List

You can grab a downloadable list of 100 bossy R Words. It has 20 words for each of the spelling generalizations.

AR Words List

These words follow the /ar/ sound and are spelled with the phonogram AR.

  • car
  • arm
  • card
  • start
  • far
  • art
  • harm
  • smart
  • barn
  • part
  • scar
  • march
  • farm
  • star
  • shark
  • spark

ER Word List

These words have the sound /er/ spelled with the letters er:

  • her
  • fern
  • herd
  • germ
  • nerve
  • jerk
  • verb
  • perch
  • berth
  • clerk
  • verse
  • herb
  • terse
  • merge
  • serve
  • verge

Since several of these words end with silent e, it’s smart to learn about the many jobs of silent e.

IR Words List

These words have the sound /er/ spelled with the letters ir:

  • bird
  • girl
  • dirt
  • stir
  • fir
  • skirt
  • first
  • sir
  • firm
  • twirl
  • swirl
  • smirk
  • shirt
  • chirp
  • thirst
  • third

OR Word List

The following words have the sound /or/ spelled or:

  • corn
  • for
  • form
  • fort
  • cork
  • stork
  • storm
  • port
  • sort
  • fork
  • pork
  • born
  • thorn
  • sport
  • north
  • short

UR Words List

Here is a word list for words with the sound /er/ spelled UR:

    • burn
    • hurt
    • fur
    • surf
    • blur
    • curb
    • hurl
    • turn
    • spurt
    • burst
    • blurb
    • spur
    • purse
    • nurse
    • church
    • lurk

You can grab all these words in a printable list by signing up below!

When to use er, ir, or ur to spell /er/

There are no hard and fast rules for when to use er, ir, or ur. But there are some generalizations you can use:

Use ER

ER is the most common spelling. Children should try it first. Use the letters er at the end of two syllable words:

      • mister
      • number

Use IR

Your child can then try ir words for nature words, number words, circular words, or clothing:

      • Nature: dirt, bird, fir
      • Number words: first, third, thirteen
      • Circular words: circle, stir, swirl, twirl
      • Clothing: skirt, shirt

Use UR

Your child can try ur words for pain words like:

      • nurse
      • hurt
      • burn
      • blur
      • burst
      • spurt

Please note these are generalizations. There are exceptions. They are more like a memory aid for some of the words than a rule.

Bossy R Syllable

When I used to teach 2nd grade, I loved teaching Bossy R. It made so many words make sense. When they learned the bossy R syllable, it opened up even more words!

A bossy R syllable is just one syllable where the vowel is one of the Bossy R sounds. You can write some of these words on a dry erase board. Then underline the syllable with the Bossy R.

Here is a list of two-syllable words with a bossy R syllable:

  • garlic,
  • artist,
  • market,
  • target,
  • never,
  • river,
  • sister,
  • number,
  • confirm,
  • circus,
  • thirty,
  • birthday,
  • import,
  • orbit,
  • ornate,
  • torso,
  • urgent,
  • disturb,
  • surpass,
  • burlap.

Not So Bossy R Words

Some words seem like bossy r words, but they are really just a long vowel sound followed by the /r/ sound.

Of course, dialect can influence this so wherever you are speaking English, the pronunciation could vary.

But if you look in the dictionary, these words are generally a long vowel plus the /r/ sound.

Long Vowel A

When there is the long vowel ai or a-consonant-e followed by r, the sound is /air/. These are actually two sounds /ai/ /r/.

Some examples are:

  • hair – /h/ /ai/ /r/
  • bare – /b/ A/ /r/

Long Vowel E

It is similar with long vowel e spelled with ee or ea.

      • Cheer – /ch/ /E/ /r/
      • Hear – /h/ /E/ /r/

Spelling Bossy R Words

One important step parents and a lot of teachers skip is spelling. Your child needs to practice spelling Bossy R Words to be able to read them well.

There is a cognitive link between seeing the letters and connecting them to sounds to hearing sounds and connecting them to letters.

You use the same list above. Just dictate the words to your child like a traditional spelling test.

If that’s too hard, then you know they need to practice mapping the words prior to spelling.

You can use printable Elkonin boxes as a tool to map the sounds to spelling in r-controlled vowel words.

Bossy R Printables & Worksheets

Here are three of the resources in the Printable Parent’s Shop that will help you teach Bossy R.

Bossy R Word Mapping Activity

This Word Mapping Activity has phonics cards for 30+ skills, including Bossy R.

You just print one word mapping mat and one set of phonics picture cards.

Then your child and you:

  • name the picture
  • count the sounds
  • write the letters that spell those sounds
  • spell the word
  • read the word

These steps speed up the cognitive process to learn words faster and more permanently.

Grab the Word Mapping Activity in the Printable Parents’ Shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Phonics Read and Spell Board Games

My dyslexic students and my own children love these simple Phonics Read and Spell Games. You’ll love that it has word cards for 74+ phonics skills.

You just print a gameboard and place it in a plastic sleeve if you want. Then cut apart one set of cards. Gather a few game pieces and one die, and you’re ready to play.

If your child lands on “Read,” they take a card and read it. If they land on “Spell,” you draw a card and read it. Then your child writes the word on a piece of paper or dry-erase board.

You can find the Phonics Read and Spell Games in the Printable Parents Shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

R-Controlled Word Mapping Worksheets

If you’re looking for a pencil and paper way to work on Bossy R, check out the R-Controlled Word Mapping Worksheets.

Your child will break apart the words by tapping the sounds, mapping the letters that spell the sounds, and then writing and reading the words.

Grab the Bossy R Word Mapping Worksheets in the Printable Parents Shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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