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

halfpenny

/ˈheɪp(ə)ni/ noun, proper noun

Forms halfpennies halfpence Halfpennys halfepenie halfepenny halfepeny halfepenye halfpenie halfpeny halfpenye halpeny halpenye hapeney hapenny ha'penny happenny

  1. noun (UK) A discontinued English (later British) coin worth half of one penny (old or new).
  2. noun (by extension, Ireland, Scotland) A similar coin formerly used in Ireland and Scotland.
  3. noun (UK) An amount of money that the English (later British) coin was worth.
  4. noun (by extension, Ireland, Scotland) An amount of money that the Irish or Scottish coin was worth.
  5. noun (philately, historical) A postage stamp worth half of one penny.
  6. noun (chiefly Australia, US, agriculture, archaic) A usually semicircular earmark made in the ear of a livestock animal.
  7. noun (obsolete, figurative) A small piece; a fragment.
  8. proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname.

Synonyms

½d ½p ha'penny

Etymology

From Middle English halpeni, halfpeni (“English coin worth half a penny; coin used in biblical times; small foreign coin”), and then either:
* from half (“half”) (from Old English healf; ultimate etymology unknown, possible from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to incline”) or *(s)kelH- (“to cut; to separate, split”)) + peni, penni (“English coin; coin used in biblical times; foreign coin; (especially in the plural) cash, money; pennyweight”) (from Old English penning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz (“coin, penny”); further etymology uncertain); or
* from Late Old English halpene, halpenige (which can also be construed as early Middle English), from healf + penning (see above).
By surface analysis, half + penny.

From halfpenny, a nickname for a tenant.

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