Listen: Again, with these sounds there are considerable variations among native speakers of English, but there is always a clear distinction between them, so the most important thing for you to do is to pronounce them as two clearly different sounds.

Listen and repeat:

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beer ---------------- bear
ear ------------------ air
here ---------------- hair
peer ---------------- pair
steer --------------- stare

Listen and read:

"Let's go for a beer, dear."
"That's a good idea, Claire."
"Let's go to 'The Old Hare'".
"Yes, I like the atmosphere there. We went there last year."
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"We need an extra chair. Mary's here. Would you please fetch one, dear?"
"Mary, I've bought a new pair of shoes. I'm wearing them today and they're hurting."
"I'm going to have my hair done later on, Claire."
"There's a hairdresser quite near here."
"Who's that over there?"
"Stop staring!"
"I don't care. He can't see me from here."
"He really looks like Tony Blair."
"Another beer anyone?"

Variants: In most cases (see spelling box), these two diphthongs are followed by an "r" in spelling. Accents where the /r/ is pronounced in all positions (see under /r/ below) do not have these diphthongs at all. Instead, in American English for example, you will find a combination of + and + . Beer is pronounced and bear is pronounced .