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

midsummer

/mɪdˈsʌmə(ɹ)/ noun, adjective, proper noun

Forms midsummers mid-summer

  1. noun The period around the summer solstice; around June 21st in the northern hemisphere.
  2. noun The first day of summer.
  3. noun The middle of summer.
  4. noun Midsummer Day, the English quarter day.
  5. noun A pagan holiday or Wiccan Sabbat.
  6. adjective Of or occurring in the middle of summer.
  7. proper noun A pagan holiday and Wiccan Sabbat.
  8. proper noun Synonym of Midsummer Day.

Synonyms

northern solstice St. John's Day summer solstice Midsummer Day Litha June 21

Etymology

From Middle English midsomer, midsumer, from Old English midsumer, midsumor (“midsummer”), from Proto-West Germanic *midisumar, from Proto-Germanic *midjasumaraz (“midsummer”), equivalent to mid- + summer. Cognate with West Frisian midsimmer (“midsummer”), Dutch midzomer (“midsummer”), German Mittsommer (“midsummer”), Danish midsommer (“midsummer”), Swedish midsommar (“midsummer”), Icelandic miðsumar (“midsummer”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The middle of summer. Shak. Midsummer daisy (Bot.), the oxeye daisy.

Etymology [AS. midsumor.]

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