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

futility

UK /fjuːˈtɪlɪti/ · US /fjuˈtɪləti/ noun

Forms futilities

  1. noun (uncountable) The quality of being futile or useless. “an exercise of futility”
  2. noun (countable) Something, especially an act, that is futile.
  3. noun (uncountable) Unimportance.

Etymology

From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The quality of being talkative; talkativeness; loquaciousness; loquacity. [Obs.]
  2. noun The quality of producing no valuable effect, or of coming to nothing; uselessness.

Etymology [L. futilitas: cf. F. futilité.]

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