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

asper

UK /ˈæspə/ · US /ˈæspəɹ/ adjective, noun, proper noun

Forms aspers aspre aspron

  1. adjective (obsolete) Rough or harsh; severe, stern, serious.
  2. noun (phonetics, obsolete) Rough breathing; a mark (#) indicating that part of a word is aspirated, or pronounced with h before it.
  3. noun (historical) Any one of several small coins, circulated around the eastern Mediterranean area from the 12th to 17th centuries.
  4. proper noun A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English aspre, from Old French aspre (modern French âpre), from Latin asper (“rough”).

From Middle English asper, from Middle French aspre or Italian aspro, both from Ancient Greek ἄσπρον (áspron), from neuter of ἄσπρος (áspros, “white”), from Latin asper (“rough, newly minted”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Rough; rugged; harsh; bitter; stern; fierce. [Archaic] "An asper sound." Bacon.
  2. noun The rough breathing; a mark placed over an initial vowel sound or over h before it; thus hws, pronounced h, hrj'twr, pronounced hra\'b6t.
  3. noun A Turkish money of account (formerly a coin), of little value; the 120th part of a piaster.

Etymology [OE. aspre, OF. aspre, F. âpre, fr. L. asper rough.]

Etymology [L. spiritus asper rough breathing.]

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