Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

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)

-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.

reductive

/ɹɪˈdʌktɪv/ adjective

adjective (Scots law, now rare) Pertaining to the reduction of a decree etc.; rescissory.
adjective Causing the physical reduction or diminution of something.
adjective (chemistry, metallurgy, biology, economics) That reduces a substance etc. to a more simple or basic form.
adjective (now rare, historical) That can be derived from, or referred back to, something else.
adjective (now frequently derogatory) That reduces an argument, issue etc. to its most basic terms; simplistic, reductionist.

Antonyms

From Middle French réductif, from Late Latin reductivus, from the participle stem of Latin reducere (“to reduce”).

Etymology [Cf. F. réductif.]

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