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

hello

UK /həˈləʊ/ · US /hɛˈloʊ/ interjection, noun, verb

Forms hellos helloes helloing helloed hullo hallo hollo hilloa

  1. interjection A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence. “Hello, everyone.”
  2. interjection A greeting used when answering the telephone. “Hello? How may I help you?”
  3. interjection A call for response if it is not clear if anyone is present or listening, or if a telephone conversation may have been disconnected. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
  4. interjection (colloquial) Used sarcastically to imply that the person addressed has done something the speaker considers to be foolish, or missed something that should have been obvious. “You just tried to start your car with your cell phone. Hello?”
  5. interjection (chiefly UK) An expression of puzzlement or discovery. “Hello! What’s going on here?”
  6. noun "Hello!" or an equivalent greeting. “They gave each other a quick hello when they met, and went back on their merry ways.”
  7. verb (transitive) To greet (someone) with "hello".

Synonyms

adzooks ay caramba mirabile dictu chihuahua begorra bleeding heck bleeding Nora bless my heart bless my soul bless us blige blimey bloody hell bloody Nora blow me blow me backwards blow me down blow me over blow me pink hullo hi howdy how-do-you-do

Antonyms

goodbye

Etymology

First attested in 1826. From holla, hollo (attested 1588). This variant of hallo is often credited to Thomas Edison as a coinage for telephone use, but its appearance in print predates the invention of the telephone by several decades.
Ultimately from a variant of Old English ēalā, such as hēlā, which was used colloquially at the time similarly to how hey and (in some dialects) hi are used nowadays. Thus, equivalent to a compound of hey and lo. Used when drawing attention to yourself.
Possibly influenced by Old Saxon halo, imperative of halōn (“to call, fetch”), used in hailing a ferryman, akin to Old High German hala, hola!, imperative forms of halōn, holōn (“to fetch”). For more information, see hallo.
The Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Dictionary also suggested that it is a variant of holla, a variant of holloo. Further beyond, the origin remains uncertain. OED and Merriam-Webster suggested that it has a connection between hallow (“to shout, to cry out loud”), which came from Old French holloer, which, according to Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, is from Old Saxon halōn.

Webster’s 1913

  1. interjection See Halloo.

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