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

zhou

UK /d͡ʒəʊ/ · US /d͡ʒoʊ/ noun, proper noun

Also a form of chou

Forms Chou Chow Tchou Chau Jou Jhou

  1. noun (Chinese contexts) Synonym of congee, a thick rice porridge.
  2. noun A people of ancient China.
  3. proper noun Various regions of ancient China occupied by this people, including the Fen and Wei valleys
  4. proper noun A dynasty of rulers over this people, who conquered the Shang kingdom and nominally ruled China until their conquest by Qin in the 3rd century BC
  5. proper noun The realm of this dynasty, surrounding the Yellow River
  6. proper noun The era of Chinese history during which this dynasty ruled
  7. proper noun The valley of the Luo and Yi Rivers during the Eastern Zhou dynasty
  8. proper noun The short-lived dynasty declared by Wu Zetian during the Tang
  9. proper noun A surname. of Chinese origin.

Synonyms

congee imperial realm Zhou dynasty Chou Chou dynasty Chow Chow dynasty

Etymology

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 粥 (zhōu). Doublet of jook and juk.

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 周 (Zhōu). Doublet of Chau.

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