Some parts of the South, including the part of Kentucky I grew up in, "here" gets pronounced in the UK manner with the schwa and without the 'r' (and as two syllables), while "hear" gets pronounced in the US manner without the schwa but with the 'r'.
Answer from Sean Duggan on Stack ExchangeSome parts of the South, including the part of Kentucky I grew up in, "here" gets pronounced in the UK manner with the schwa and without the 'r' (and as two syllables), while "hear" gets pronounced in the US manner without the schwa but with the 'r'.
In standard US English they are pronounced the same. I've heard Southerners pronounce "hear" as two syllables with the "r" silent, as in, "Y'all come back now, yuh he-ah."
I'm surprised by Sean's statement of Kentuckians pronouncing "here" as two syllables but "hear" as one, because, as I say, the only dialect I've ever heard had it the other way around. But I've never lived in the South, only passed through now and then, so maybe there are multiple, mutually-confusing dialects down there. :-)
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Please be aware that the pronunciation could vary from one dialect to another.
However, the words you mentioned seem to be pronounced pretty much the same in both American (AmE) and English (BrE) accents. One main difference here is that BrE is typically non-rhotic ([r] sound is more gentle and subtle), while AmE is typically rhotic.
heir is pronounced "air"
hare and hair are pronounced "hair" (with the same vowel as "air")
here rhymes with "ear", but with "h" sound
hire rhymes with "fire", but with "h" sound
her is pronounced "her"
Your dictionary should provide another good way to check the pronunciation.
Finally, thanks to @Hellion, in listening, to tell which word is which from several possible homophones (e.g. heir or air), context will give you necessary clues.
How can I distinguish between the words 'hare', 'here', 'hair', 'heir', 'hire', 'her', 'higher' and 'hear' when pronounced?
Context. Here's some hints that can help you.
hare isn't too common of a word unless the conversation involves rabbits or animals, the expression hare-brained being a possible exception. So you can assume "hair" if you hear this most of the time.
hear is a verb and will be immediately preceded by a subject pronoun most of the time - I hear X... etc. here will not be immediately preceded by a subject pronoun. hear can be the first word of a sentence, but not too often - using hear in the imperative sense, where it would be the first word of the sentence, would be limited to an announcement scenario, or possibly where someone is telling you to listen closely.
heir isn't a common word outside of a royal or legal setting. Nine times out of ten this sound is the word air.
hire is a verb and will be immediately preceded by a subject pronoun most of the time, or be used in the expression for hire. Higher, being an modifier, will not. EDIT: hire is also a noun, typically used in the phrase new hire or recent hire.
her should not sound like the other words, but this could be the case in some dialects. Usually her will occur towards the end of a sentence and preceded by a preposition like "to" or "by." If it occurs towards the beginning of a sentence, it will be immediately followed by a noun, expressing possession - "Her face was beautiful."