Proper Pronunciation Guide

tear

[tɛ͜ɚ]

[tɪ͜ɚ]

The vowel in the first word is pronounced as the R-Vowel diphthong /ɛ͜ɚ/—like the word “air.”
The vowel in the second word is pronounced as the R-Vowel diphthong /ɪ͜ɚ/—like the word “ear.”
Be sure to aspirate the consonant
/t/ sufficiently so that it does not sound like
/d/, creating the words “dare” and “dear.”

	I'm going to tear up this piece of paper and start over.
	He noticed a tear in his pant's cuff.
	She shed a tear for her pet turtle, who died this morning.
	He teared up at his son's graduation.

(verb, noun) To rip or pull something apart that should be whole. As a verb it is irregular ( tear, tore, torn) and also forms a phrasal verb with the particle “up”—to tear up—which means to completely destroy and invalidate by ripping apart (He tore up the contract). This meaning is shown in the first practice sentence.
(noun, verb) The drops of moisture coming out of one’s eyes when crying. This word is also a regular verb, which means to produce tears and sometimes forms a phrasal verb with the particle “up”-to tear up-which means to have tears come up into the eyes without actually crying (teary-eyed) as in the final practice sentence.

These two words are homographs [

hɑm ə ɡræfs], which are two words with different meanings and pronunciations but which are spelled, or written, the same.