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.

duffer

UK /ˈdʌfə/ · US /ˈdʌfɚ/ noun, proper noun

Also a form of duff

Forms duffers

noun (informal) An incompetent, indolent, or clumsy person.
noun (sports) A player having little skill, especially a golfer who duffs.
noun (archaic) A pedlar or hawker, especially one selling cheap or substandard goods.
noun (archaic) Cheap or substandard goods sold by a duffer.
noun (archaic) Anything substandard, such as a counterfeit or a defective instance.
noun (dated) A cow that does not produce milk or produces substantially less than her peers do.
noun (Australia, dated) A cattle thief or thief of other livestock; one who alters the brands of cattle.
noun A racing pigeon that does not perform well.
proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

Cognate with duff, which see (origin is uncertain).

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