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

horsetail

/ˈhɔː(ɹ)s.teɪl/ noun

Forms horsetails horse tail

  1. noun (literal) A tail of a horse.
  2. noun (botany) Any of various simple vascular plants, of the order Equisetales, that have hollow stems and produce spores.
  3. noun (military) A Turkish standard denoting rank. “Commanders were distinguished by the number of horsetails carried before them. The sultan had seven, the grand vizier five, and the pashas three, two, or one.”
  4. noun (botany) A mare's tail, a water plant in genus Hippuris.
  5. noun Any waterfall, the descending water of which maintains contact with bedrock most of the time.
  6. noun (anatomy) cauda equina, a bundle of nerve fibers.
  7. noun (rare) A ponytail hairstyle.

Etymology

From Middle English horsetaile, horstaile, equivalent to horse + tail.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A leafless plant, with hollow and rushlike stems. It is of the genus Equisetum, and is allied to the ferns. See Illust. of Equisetum.
  2. noun A Turkish standard, denoting rank.

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