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

ramshackle

/ˈɹæmˌʃæk.əl/ adjective, verb

Forms ramshackles ramshackling ramshackled

  1. adjective In disrepair or disorder; poorly maintained; lacking upkeep, usually of buildings or vehicles. “They stayed in a ramshackle cabin on the beach.”
  2. adjective Badly or carelessly organized.
  3. verb (obsolete, transitive) To ransack.

Synonyms

shabby tacky scroungy mean beat beat up beaten up bedraggled broken-down crumbling derelict dilapidated draggled neglected ruinous run-down seedy tatterdemalion timeworn tumbledown tumble-down

Antonyms

intact in good repair like new rustless spick-and-span thrifty unbroken undamaged unimpaired untainted well-kept well-preserved

Etymology

First attested in 1830, a back-formation from ramshackled, from ransackled, past participle of ransackle (“to ransack”), frequentative of Middle English ransaken (“to pillage”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Loose; disjointed; falling to pieces; out of repair.
  2. verb To search or ransack; to rummage. [Prov. Eng.]

Etymology [Etymol. uncertain.]

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