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

prairie

/ˈpɹɛə.ɹi/ noun, proper noun

Forms prairies

  1. noun An extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any, trees, especially in North America.
  2. proper noun An unincorporated community in Wilcox County, Alabama.
  3. proper noun An unincorporated community in Randolph County, Illinois.
  4. proper noun An unincorporated community in Black Township, Posey County, Indiana.
  5. proper noun An unincorporated community in Monroe County, Mississippi.
  6. proper noun An unincorporated community in Skagit County, Washington.
  7. proper noun A number of townships in the United States, listed under Prairie Township.
  8. proper noun A rural town in the Shire of Flinders, Queensland, Australia.
  9. proper noun A locality in the Shire of Loddon, Victoria, Australia.

Etymology

Borrowed from French prairie, from Old French praerie, from Vulgar Latin *prataria, from Latin prātum (“meadow”) + -aria.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An extensive tract of level or rolling land, destitute of trees, covered with coarse grass, and usually characterized by a deep, fertile soil. They abound throughout the Mississippi valley, between the Alleghanies and the Rocky mountains.
  2. noun A meadow or tract of grass; especially, a so called natural meadow. Prairie chicken (Zoöl.), any American grouse of the genus Tympanuchus, especially T. Americanus (formerly T. cupido), which inhabits the prairies of the central United States. Applied also to the sharp-tailed grouse.

Etymology [F., an extensive meadow, OF. praerie, LL. prataria, fr. L. pratum a meadow.]

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