Poor and pour

[NamelessKing]

Are poor and pour pronounced the same?

 

[probus]

Not in my dialect. We use the same vowel sound in poor as in school, and make pour rhyme with for. I call my dialect mainstream American English.

 

[probus]

According to John Wells, 74% of speakers of BrE pronounce both words in the same way.

There's an Irish pub here in Toronto called The Pour House.

 

[GoesStation]

Are poor and pour pronounced the same?

This American pronounces them the same. I don't think I've ever heard an American pronounce poor with the same vowel as school.

 

[emsr2d2]

Forvo is a great tool for listening to native speakers' pronunciation of thousands of words. If you click here, you can listen to 14 native speakers saying the word "poor". Once you've listened to them, enter the word "pour" in the search box and listen to those too.

Let us know if you hear any differences.

 

[Tdol]

I'm one of the BrE speakers for whom they sound the same, and both sound like for.