Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

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

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)

-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.

build up

verb

Forms builds up building up built up

verb To erect; to construct.
verb To close up by building. “to build up a door”
verb (intransitive, transitive, idiomatic) To accumulate: to increase incrementally or continually. “Ever since the secretary left, the letters in my inbox have started to build up.”
verb (transitive, idiomatic) To strengthen. “They had to build up their fortress to protect against attack.”
verb (card games) In solitaire card games, to place a card over another card of lower value. (e.g., place 5♦ over 4♣)

Synonyms

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