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.

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Hong Kong

UK /ˌhɒŋˈkɒŋ/ · US /ˌhɔŋˈkɔŋ/ proper noun

Forms HK Hong-Kong Honkong Hongkong

  1. proper noun A city and special administrative region in southern China, located on an island east of the Pearl River delta in the South China Sea; a former British colony.
  2. proper noun An island in southeastern China, Hong Kong Island, the site of the city of the same name, lying off Guangdong (Canton) province.
  3. proper noun A special administrative region of China, which includes the city and island of the same name as well as nearby islands and the Kowloon Peninsula.
  4. proper noun (historical) A former British colony in 1843–1941 and 1945–1981 and then British Dependent Territory in 1981–1997 in modern southern China in the area of modern Hong Kong.

Synonyms

Hsiang-kang Xianggang Hsiang-chiang Xiangjiang Hsiang Kang

Etymology

An irregular romanization of Cantonese 香港 (hoeng¹ gong², “incense harbor”), the former name of a settlement in what is now Aberdeen on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island, where joss stick incense was stored for export, made from agarwood.

Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “Hong Kong”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details