The traditional way to pronounce “kefir” is “kuh-FEAR” with the emphasis on the second syllable. There are two other common pronunciations we hear in the United States. We say KEE-fur because words in English don’t typically stress the last syllable for nouns. KEFF-er is an alternate pronunciation because it is common for short vowel sounds to be represented by a single vowel. “Tomato” -“tomahto” as we say!