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

netherlands

UK /ˈnɛðələndz/ · US /ˈnɛðɚləndz/ noun, proper noun

Forms the Netherlands

  1. noun (slang) Hindquarters, butt.
  2. noun (slang) Crotch or genitals.
  3. proper noun The Kingdom of the Netherlands. A country in Western Europe, consisting of four constituent countries: the Netherlands per se, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
  4. proper noun The main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located primarily in Western Europe bordering Germany and Belgium. Capital and largest city: Amsterdam.
  5. proper noun (rare, chiefly historical) the Low Countries, a region of Western Europe located around the low-lying areas in and around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, including the countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Synonyms

Holland Benelux The Netherlands Kingdom of The Netherlands Nederland

Etymology

Play on Netherlands, from nether + land.

From nether (“lower”) + lands, the country being very low-lying, with a great part below sea level. Either a calque or a parallel formation to Dutch Nederland.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “netherlands”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details