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

cumbersome

UK /ˈkʌmbəsəm/ · US /ˈkʌmbɚsəm/ adjective

  1. adjective Burdensome or hindering, as if a weight or drag; vexatious.
  2. adjective Not easily managed or handled; awkward or clumsy. “Cumbersome machines can endanger operators and slow down production.”
  3. adjective Hard, difficult, and demanding to handle or get around with. “A slave’s work was as cumbersome as toiling on the fields, or in the mines.”
  4. adjective Inert, lumbering, or slow in movement.

Synonyms

cumbrous lumpish unwieldy awkward clumsy inapt inept ill-chosen

Etymology

From Middle English cumbyrsum, cummyrsum; equivalent to cumber (“hindrance”) + -some. Compare encumber and incumbent.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Burdensome or hindering, as a weight or drag; embarrassing; vexatious; cumbrous.
  2. adjective Not easily managed; as, a cumbersome contrivance or machine.

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