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

baa

UK [bɑː] · US [bæ] noun, interjection, verb, proper noun

Forms baas baaing baaed bah

  1. noun (onomatopoeia) The characteristic cry or bleating of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.
  2. interjection (onomatopoeia) The characteristic cry of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.
  3. verb To make the characteristic cry of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.
  4. noun The letter ب in the Arabic script.
  5. proper noun An administrative atoll of the Maldives, officially named Maalhosmadulu Dhekunuburi.

Synonyms

bleat bleating blat blate

Etymology

Compare German bäh, mäh; an imitative word.
Notes on phonological development
The pronunciation /bɑː/ is perhaps a development from earlier /bæː/ reflecting the shift of /æː/ to /ɑː/ during the 18th and 19th centuries. Compare Early Modern English bae, bea, both "to baa", respectively displaying the then current pronunciation of Middle English /aː/ as /æː/ and the failure of Middle English /ɛː/ to raise, and the replacement of mew with meow for another instance where recent sound change has made onomatopoeia opaque.

Borrowed from Arabic بَاء (bāʔ).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To cry baa, or bleat as a sheep.
  2. noun The cry or bleating of a sheep; a bleat.

Etymology [Cf. G. bäen; an imitative word.]

Etymology [Cf. G. bä.]

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