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

scruff

/skɹʌf/ noun, verb

Forms scruffs scruffing scruffed

  1. noun Someone with an untidy appearance. “That candidate will never get the job: he's a right scruff.”
  2. noun Stubble, facial hair (on males).
  3. noun (obsolete) Crust.
  4. noun (obsolete) Scurf.
  5. noun The loose skin at the back of the neck of some animals.
  6. noun (rare) The back of the neck, nape; also scruff of the neck. “He grabbed his unruly child by the scruff of the neck, and took him home.”
  7. verb (transitive) To lift or carry by the scruff.

Synonyms

nape nucha nuchal withers

Etymology

See scurf.

1790, from earlier (1787) scuft and dialect scuff, influenced by scruff (“crust”).
Related to North Frisian skuft (“back of the neck of a horse”) and Dutch schoft (“withers (of a horse)”), from Proto-Germanic. Compare also Old Norse skopt (“hair of the head”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍆𐍄 (skuft, “hair of the head”), Middle High German schopf (German Schopf).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Scurf. [Obs.]
  2. noun The nape of the neck; the loose outside skin, as of the back of the neck.

Etymology [See Scurf.]

Etymology [Cf. Scuff.]

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