/ɜ/

For a note on how AWE organizes its group of articles on vowels, basically by aspects of sound and of writing, see category:vowels.

ɜ

The symbol /ɜ/ (a 'turned epsilon') is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent the 'open-mid front unrounded vowel': the sound heard characteristically in 'get', 'then' and 'bed'.

It is usually written with a single 'e; but

• quite often the /É›/ sound is represented by an -ea- (e.g. 'deaf', 'bread', 'already', 'weather' and 'pleasure';
• sometimes it is written with -ai-, as in 'said' and 'against' (and in some accents 'again' and 'says');
• sometimes it is written with -ei-, as in 'leisure', 'lieutenant' and 'heifer';
• occasionally with an '-a-' (e.g. 'any' a,d 'many';
• and with an '-eo-' in 'jeopardy', a '-u-' in 'bury' and an '-ie-' in 'friend'