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

shoestring

UK /ˈʃuːstɹɪŋ/ · US /ˈʃustɹɪŋ/ noun, adjective, verb

Forms shoestrings shoestringing shoestringed

  1. noun (chiefly US) The string or lace used to secure a shoe to the foot; a shoelace. “Your shoestring is untied.”
  2. noun An object that is long and thin, like a shoestring (sense 1).
  3. noun (cooking) A long, narrow cut of a food; a julienne. “shoestring French fries”
  4. noun Chiefly in on a shoestring: very little money; a tight budget. “He was able to organize the event on a shoestring.”
  5. adjective (US, chiefly American football, baseball) Of a catch or tackle: made near the ground, close to a player's shoes.
  6. verb (transitive, American football) To tackle (a player) using a shoestring tackle (“one made near the ground, close to a player's shoes”).
  7. verb (transitive, baseball) To catch (a ball) using a shoestring catch (“one made near the ground, close to a player's shoes”).

Synonyms

shoelace shoe lace shoe string

Etymology

The noun is derived from shoe + string. The adjective is derived from the noun, while the verb is derived from terms such as shoestring catch and shoestring tackle.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “shoestring”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details