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

zaire

UK /zaɪˈɪə/ · US /zɑːˈɪəɹ/ noun, proper noun

Forms zaires

  1. noun (historical) The unit of currency of Zaire from 1967 to 1998.
  2. noun The former currency of Zaïre.
  3. proper noun (historical) Former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a country in Central Africa; used from 1971–1997.
  4. proper noun (chiefly historical) Synonym of Congo (major river in Central Africa)
  5. proper noun A province of Angola, named after the river

Synonyms

Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo Belgian Congo

Etymology

Borrowed from French zaïre. Named after the Zaire River, another name for the Congo River.

Borrowed from French Zaïre, a truncation of Kongo nzadi o nzere (“river swallowing rivers”) which refers to the Congo river; adopted in accordance with the Authenticity Movement.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “zaire”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details