Ask a five-year-old to write turn and you’ll get a few different answers: tern, tirn, sometimes even trn. They aren’t wrong about the sound. They’ve just found out that English has three ways to spell it, and nobody told them which one goes in which word. That’s the real job with this sound. Reading it is easy once a child knows the letters. Choosing the spelling takes much longer.
Where ur fits in the programme
This one needs a little honesty, because plenty of pages call it a Jolly Phonics sound. It isn’t a separate entry in the 42. Jolly Phonics teaches the sound as er in group 7, with the others in that group, and brings in ir and ur later as other ways to write the same sound. ur as its own grapheme comes from Letters and Sounds, where it’s a Phase 3 sound.
Saying the sound
It’s a long vowel. Your tongue sits in the middle of your mouth and your lips stay relaxed, not rounded and not stretched. It’s the same sound you hear in her and in bird. There’s no separate action, so borrow the one for er: roll your hands over each other like a food mixer and say “er-er-er”. Do it together before any letters appear.
When your child starts to write, let them watch the picture once, then trace the letters in the air before they pick up a pencil.
Three spellings, one sound
Put three cards on the table: ur, er, ir. Say her and bird and ask which card each needs. Listening won’t tell them, and that’s fine. Tell them these are words to remember. In the middle of a word ur is the most common choice, so it’s a sensible first guess when a child is stuck, and our er sound page covers the other spelling.
Words to read
Don’t hand over the whole list at once. Start with the short ones and move on when they read them without sounding out every letter.
- Short and simple: turn, burn, hurt, curl, surf, burp, burst
- Picture words: church, nurse, purse, turtle, purple, turnip, burger, curtain
- Longer: Thursday (a good one for the days-of-the-week chart on the wall)
- Starts with ur: urn, urge, urgent. Leave these for a confident reader.
- Ends with ur: fur, blur
Our Phase 3 flashcards include a ur card if you want one to cut out.
Mix-ups that come up
Letters that look right but sound wrong. Our, pour and hour all have u and r side by side, and none of them has this sound. If a child reads hour as “her”, say it’s a rule-breaker and move on.
Ure. Sure, pure and cure add an e and make a different sound.
Ar and or. Some children swap in the sound from car or fork, usually because the r is pulling their attention. Say the word slowly and ask them to feel their mouth. For ur it stays relaxed. For car it opens wide.
Two quick activities
Build burn. Lay out cards for b, ur and n. Say the word, push the cards together and read it back. Then swap the b for a t and you’ve made turn. Three cards, one minute, no prep.
Which spelling? Say nurse, purse and curl, one at a time, and have your child write each on a mini whiteboard. Then show them the right spelling and let them fix their own. Keep the list to five words and come back to it tomorrow.
The tracing sheet
The sheet below has the ur letters to trace, with a nurse as the key picture. Print the picture at full size, or save it and print it from your computer.
It’s a plain tracing page, so it only helps with letter formation. For the spelling choice, use the activities above. There’s no separate PDF for this one, but our Phase 3 flashcards are a download of their own:
If you’re new to all this, read the complete Jolly Phonics guide first. Once ur feels comfortable, the air sound page is the next Phase 3 sound worth a look.
Questions parents ask
Is ur a Jolly Phonics sound?
Not as its own entry. Jolly Phonics teaches the sound as er and brings in ir and ur later as other spellings of it. In Letters and Sounds, ur is a Phase 3 grapheme.
Is there an action for ur?
No. Use the er action: roll your hands over each other like a mixer and say er-er-er.
Why does my child write tern or tirn for turn?
The sound is right. It’s the spelling that’s hard, because ur, er and ir all say the same thing. Show them the word, tell them it’s one to remember, and let them practice it a few times.
Do our, pour and hour have the ur sound?
No. They contain the letters u and r, but they say something different, so treat them as separate words to learn.
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