Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iː	see	ɪ	sit	e / ɛ	bed	æ	cat
ɑː	father	ɒ	hot (UK)	ɔː	law	ʊ	put
uː	too	ʌ	cup	ɜː	bird	ə	about
eɪ	day	aɪ	my	ɔɪ	boy	aʊ	now
əʊ / oʊ	go (UK / US)	ɪə	near	eə	hair	ʊə	tour

Consonants that look unusual

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.

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

analphabet

/əˈnælfəbɛt/ noun, adjective

Forms analphabets analphabete

noun A person who does not know the letters of the alphabet; a partly or wholly illiterate person.
adjective Ignorant of the letters of the alphabet; partly or wholly illiterate.

Synonyms

illiterate analphabetic

Etymology

From Late Latin analphabetus (“unable to read and write; illiterate”), from Ancient Greek ἀναλφάβητος (analphábētos, “illiterate”), from ἀν- (an-, “un-”) + ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos, “alphabet”); analysable as an- + alphabet. The English word was probably influenced by cognate words in other languages such as French analphabète (adjective), German Analphabetus, Analphabet (nouns), analphabeten (adjective), Italian analfabeta (adjective, noun), analfabeto (adjective, noun), Portuguese analfabeto (adjective, noun), Spanish analfabeto (adjective, noun).
The adjective was derived from the noun.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “analphabet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details