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

downstairs

UK /daʊnˈstɛəz/ · US /daʊnˈstɛɹz/ adjective, adverb, noun

Forms further downstairs farther downstairs furthest downstairs farthest downstairs

  1. adjective Located on a lower floor. “The kids sleep in the downstairs bedroom; we sleep in the upstairs one.”
  2. adjective (linguistics, semantics, syntax) Originating in or associated with a lower, embedded clause, as opposed to the matrix clause.
  3. adverb Down the stairs. “I have to walk downstairs to leave the building.”
  4. adverb (figurative) In or to hell.
  5. adverb (slang, euphemistic) Regarding the genitalia. “something wrong downstairs”
  6. adverb (linguistics, semantics, syntax) In or to a lower, embedded clause, as opposed to the matrix clause.
  7. noun The lower floor of a house, at ground level, or sometimes below. “We looked over the house; downstairs was spacious, but upstairs really cramped.”
  8. noun In particular, especially historically, the servants’ quarters. “The family tried to ignore gossip from downstairs.”
  9. noun (slang, euphemistic) The genitalia. “The wind lifted up her skirt and I caught a glimpse of her downstairs.”

Synonyms

downstair down the stairs on a lower floor below

Antonyms

upstairs

Etymology

From down- + stair + -s.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adverb Down the stairs; to a lower floor.
  2. adverb Below stairs; as, a downstairs room.

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