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

chuff

/t͡ʃʌf/ adjective, adverb, noun, verb

Forms chuffs chuffing chuffed

  1. adjective (UK) Surly; annoyed; displeased; disgruntled.
  2. adjective (UK, dialect) stupid; churlish; loutish.
  3. adverb In a chuff manner.
  4. noun A coarse or stupid fellow.
  5. verb (intransitive) To make noisy puffing sounds, as of a steam locomotive.
  6. verb (UK, slang) To break wind.
  7. verb Of a powder, propellant, or explosive charge: to become extinguished and reignited intermittently.
  8. noun (scriptwriting, uncountable) Superfluous small talk that is free of conflict, offers no character development, description or insight, and does not advance the story or plot.
  9. noun A noisy puffing sound.
  10. noun A breathy noise produced by a tiger, similar in function to a cat's purr.
  11. adjective (UK) Pleased, proud.
  12. adjective (obsolete) Swollen with fat.
  13. adjective (of cheeks) Chubby.
  14. noun (vulgar slang) The vagina.
  15. noun (vulgar slang) The anus. “The car behind was following too close — it was right up my chuff.”
  16. verb (UK, euphemistic) Used as a replacement for obscenities, particularly fuck. “Oh chuff off! I'm so chuffing fed up with all of the spam posts on my timeline.”

Synonyms

chuffy puff huff

Etymology

15th century, dialectal, from Middle English chuffe (“a rustic, boor”), in noun sense “stupid fellow”. Adjective sense “surly, displeased” from 1832.

Onomatopoeic. Compare chug and puff.

1520s, in sense “swollen with fat”; circa 1860, British dialect, in sense “pleased”. Possibly related to “coarse, stupid, fat-headed” sense (see etymology 1 above). Or, perhaps a euphemistic alteration of fuck or another expletive.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A coarse or stupid fellow. Shak.
  2. adjective Stupid; churlish. [Prov. Eng.] Wright.

Etymology [Perh. a modification of chub: cf. W. cyff stock, stump.]

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