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

hobnail

noun, verb

Forms hobnails hobnailing hobnailed

  1. noun A short nail with a thick head, typically used in boot soles.
  2. noun (obsolete) A yokel; a rustic.
  3. verb To fit with hobnails.
  4. verb (transitive, archaic) To tread down roughly, as with hobnailed shoes.

Etymology

From hob + nail. The oldest attestation is in William Shakespeare, but he likely did not coin the term.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A short, sharp-pointed, large-headed nail, --used in shoeing houses and for studding the soles of heavy shoes.
  2. noun A clownish person; a rustic. Milton. Hobnail liver (Med.), a disease in which the liver is shrunken, hard, and covered with projections like hobnails; one of the forms of cirrhosis of the liver.
  3. verb To tread down roughly, as with hobnailed shoes.

Etymology [1st hob + nail.]

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