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

retroflex

UK /ˈɹɛt.ɹəʊ.flɛks/ · US /ˈɹɛt.ɹoʊ.flɛks/ adjective, noun, verb

Forms retroflexes retroflexing retroflexed

  1. adjective Bent or curved backwards.
  2. adjective (phonetics) Of pronunciation in which the tip of the tongue is raised and bent backwards, so that the underside of the tongue approaches or touches the palate.
  3. adjective (phonetics) Of pronunciation in which the tip of the tongue approaches or touches the back of the alveolar ridge.
  4. adjective (phonetics) Of pronunciation in which the blade of the tongue approaches or touches the back of the alveolar ridge.
  5. adjective (phonetics, general sense) Of any of the aforementioned pronunciations.
  6. noun (phonetics) A consonant pronounced with the underside of the tongue approaching or touching the palate.
  7. noun (phonetics) A consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue approaching or touching the back of the alveolar ridge.
  8. noun (phonetics) A consonant pronounced with the blade of the tongue approaching or touching the back of the alveolar ridge.
  9. noun (phonetics, general sense) Any of the aforementioned consonants.
  10. verb (transitive) To bend or curve backwards.

Synonyms

retroflexed retroflexive reflexed reflected subapical palatal apical postalveolar laminal cacuminal cerebral rhotic replicate

Antonyms

nonretroflex unretroflexed

Etymology

From Latin rētrōflexus, the perfect participle of rētrōflectō (“bend, turn”), from flectō (“bend, turn”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Reflexed; bent or turned abruptly backward.

Etymology [Pref. retro- + L. flectere, flexum, to bend, to turn.]

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