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

gaffer

UK /ɡæfə/ · US /ɡæfɚ/ noun, proper noun

Forms gaffers

  1. noun (film) A chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production.
  2. noun A glassblower.
  3. noun Someone aboard a boat whose duty is to gaff a (large) fish once the angler has reeled it in.
  4. noun (colloquial) An old person, usually a man.
  5. noun (UK, informal) The leader of a group or team, such as a boss, foreman, coach, or publican.
  6. noun A sailor.
  7. noun (Canada) The baby in the house.
  8. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

old-timer oldtimer old geezer antique foreman chief honcho boss

Etymology

* (cinema): The natural lighting on early film sets was adjusted by opening and closing flaps in the tent cloths, called gaff cloths or gaff flaps.

Likely a contraction of godfather, but with the vowels influenced by grandfather. Compare French compère, German Gevatter.
Compare also Old English ġefædera (“godfather”), of which some unattested dialectal descendant may have been an influence.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An old fellow; an aged rustic.
  2. noun A foreman or overseer of a gang of laborers. [Prov. Eng.]

Etymology [Possibly contr. fr. godfather; but prob. fr. gramfer for grandfather. Cf. Gammer.]

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