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

British

UK [ˈbɹɪtɪʃ] · US [ˈbɹɪɾɪʃ] noun, proper noun, adjective

Forms Brittish

  1. noun The residents or inhabitants of Great Britain.
  2. noun The citizens or inhabitants of the United Kingdom.
  3. noun (history) The earlier inhabitants of southern Britain, prior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion and subsequent migrations.
  4. noun (obsolete) Synonym of Welsh: the Welsh people.
  5. proper noun The Celtic language of the ancient Britons; Common Brittonic.
  6. proper noun (chiefly US) The British English language.
  7. adjective Of Britain.
  8. adjective Of the United Kingdom.
  9. adjective Of the Commonwealth of Nations, or the British Empire.
  10. adjective (informal, proscribed) Of England; English.
  11. adjective (historical) Of the ancient inhabitants of the southern part of Britain; Brythonic.
  12. adjective (historical) Of the British Isles.
  13. adjective Of British English.

Synonyms

Britons Brits Welsh British people

Etymology

From Middle English Brittish, from Old English Brettisċ.
The spelling with single -t- appears in the 13th century under the influence of Medieval Latin Britannicus, but spelling with -tt- persists alongside -t- during the 13th to at least 18th centuries.
In reference to the island of Great Britain from ca. 1400 (Latin natio Anglica sive Britannica, Brittisshe occean 1398, the Britishe nacion 1548).
As a noun, referring to the British people, British soldiers, etc. from ca. 1600.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Of or pertaining to Great Britain or to its inhabitants; --sometimes restrict to the original inhabitants. British gum, a brownish substance, very soluble in cold water, formed by heating dry starch at a temperature of about 600° Fahr. It corresponds, in its properties, to dextrin, and is used, in solution, as a substitute for gum in stiffering goods.
  2. noun People of Great Britain.

Etymology [AS. Brittisc, Bryttisc.]

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