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

giraffe

UK /dʒɪˈɹɑːf/ · US /d͡ʒəˈɹæf/ noun

Forms giraffes giraff jaraff

  1. noun A ruminant in the genus Giraffa of the African savannah with long legs, a highly elongated neck, yellow fur patterned with dark spots typically in the form of a network, and two or more horn-like projections called ossicones; the tallest living animal.
  2. noun A giraffe unicycle.
  3. noun (Cockney rhyming slang) A laugh. “Are you having a giraffe?!”
  4. noun (colloquial) A very tall individual.
  5. noun (especially, derogatory) A very tall woman.

Synonyms

camelopard bubble bath bubble Giraffa camelopardalis

Etymology

From Middle French giraffe, from Italian giraffa, from Arabic زُرَافَة (zurāfa), from Classical Syriac ܙܪܝܦܐ (zārīp̄ā), from Classical Persian زُرْنَاپَا (zurnāpā, literally “flute-leg”). Displaced camelopard.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An African ruminant (Camelopardalis giraffa) related to the deers and antelopes, but placed in a family by itself; the camelopard. It is the tallest of animals, being sometimes twenty feet from the hoofs to the top of the head. Its neck is very long, and its fore legs are much longer than its hind legs.

Etymology [F. girafe, Sp. girafa, from Ar. zurafa, zarafa.]

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