Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iː	see	ɪ	sit	e / ɛ	bed	æ	cat
ɑː	father	ɒ	hot (UK)	ɔː	law	ʊ	put
uː	too	ʌ	cup	ɜː	bird	ə	about
eɪ	day	aɪ	my	ɔɪ	boy	aʊ	now
əʊ / oʊ	go (UK / US)	ɪə	near	eə	hair	ʊə	tour

Consonants that look unusual

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.

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

shamrock

UK /ˈʃæm.ɹɒk/ · US /ˈʃæm.ɹɑk/ noun

Forms shamrocks

noun The trefoil leaf of any small clover, especially Trifolium repens, or such a leaf from a clover-like plant, commonly used as a symbol of Ireland. “She wore a shamrock in honor of her Irish ancestry.”
noun Any of several species of small clover-like plant species, with trefoil leaves, especially Trifolium repens. “The fields were covered with shamrocks.”

Synonyms

trefoil clover white clover dutch clover Trifolium repens common wood sorrel cuckoo bread Oxalis acetosella hop clover lesser yellow trefoil Trifolium dubium

Etymology

From Irish seamróg, from Old Irish semróc, diminutive of semar, semair (“clover”), from Proto-Celtic *semarā, *semaris (compare Gaulish uisumaris (“clover”)), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *semh₁r-, *smeh₁r-. Related to Old Norse smári (“clover”) and possibly Georgian სამყურა (samq̇ura, “clover”).

Webster’s 1913

noun A trifoliate plant used as a national emblem by the Irish. The legend is that St. Patrick once plucked a leaf of it for use in illustrating the doctrine of the trinity.

Etymology [L. seamrog, seamar, trefoil, white clover, white honeysuckle; akin to Gael. seamrag.]

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