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

alto

UK /ˈæl.təʊ/ · US /ˈæl.toʊ/ noun, proper noun

Forms altos alti

  1. noun A musical part or section higher than tenor and lower than soprano, formerly the part that performed a countermelody above the tenor or main melody.
  2. noun A person or musical instrument that performs the alto part.
  3. noun (colloquial, music) An alto saxophone.
  4. proper noun A surname.
  5. proper noun A census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States.

Synonyms

contratenor altus high countertenor contralto countertenor

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian alto (“high”). Doublet of old.

Borrowed from Spanish alto.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Formerly the part sung by the highest male, or counter-tenor, voices; now the part sung by the lowest female, or contralto, voices, between in tenor and soprano. In instrumental music it now signifies the tenor.
  2. noun An alto singer. Alto clef (Mus.) the counter-tenor clef, or the C clef, placed so that the two strokes include the middle line of the staff. Moore.

Etymology [It. alto high, fr. L. altus. Cf. Alt.]

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