How To Pronounce Tear

The stress in tear moves depending on how the word is used.

Verb (rip). It is /teə/ in British English and /ter/ in American English, as in “to tear paper”.

Noun (from the eye). It is /tɪə/ in British English and /tɪr/ in American English, as in “a tear from the eye”.

Slashes / / show the phonemic transcription, the sounds that change meaning. Square brackets [ ] show the phonetic transcription, with the finer detail of how the sounds are actually made.