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

pretentious

/pɹɪˈtɛn.ʃəs/ adjective

Forms prætentious

  1. adjective Motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others. “Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.”
  2. adjective Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction. “Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.”
  3. adjective (obsolete, perhaps incorrect) Marked by pretense (not necessarily false pretense); intent upon success; ambitious.

Synonyms

highfalutin genteel affected effete fey recherché hoity-toity overrefined pansified precious smug stagy stilted theatrical Woosterian ostentatious

Antonyms

unpretentious humble modest demure formal natural priggish prim prudish puritanical Quakerish

Etymology

From French prétentieux, from prétention, from Latin praetēnsus (“false or hypocritical profession”), past participle of praetendō.
Note that pretentious is spelled with a ‘t’, unlike related pretense, pretension. This is due to the French spelling: *-sious does not occur as an English suffix, though -sion and -tion both do.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming.

Etymology [Cf. F. prétentieux. See Pretend.]

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