Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

wren

/ɹɛn/ noun, proper noun

Forms wrens wran

  1. noun Troglodytes troglodytes (Eurasian wren, type species and sole Old World species of the family Troglodytidae).
  2. noun Any member of a mainly New World passerine bird family Troglodytidae; a true wren.
  3. noun Any small bird of similar appearance to a true wren, such as a fairywren or scrubwren.
  4. proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname.
  5. proper noun Sir Christopher Wren, English architect
  6. proper noun (rare) A male or female given name.
  7. noun (UK, informal) A female member of the Royal Navy (originally, a member of the WRNS).

Synonyms

Sir Christopher Wren jenny wren

Etymology

From Middle English wrenne, wranne, from Old English wrenna, wrænna, werna, wærna, wrenne (“wren”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrandijō, from Proto-Germanic *wrandijô (“wren”).
Cognate with Old Saxon wrendilo (“wren”), Old High German rento, rentilo (“wren”), Danish rindel (“wren”), Icelandic rindill (“wren”).

Originally a nickname, from Middle English wrenne (“wren”).

From WRNS, short for Women's Royal Naval Service. Influenced by the ornithonym wren.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Any one of numerous species of small singing birds belonging to Troglodytes and numerous allied of the family Troglodytidæ.
  2. noun Any one of numerous species of small singing birds more or less resembling the true wrens in size and habits.

Etymology [OE. wrenne, AS. wrenna, wrænna, perhaps akin to wr lascivious.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wren”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details