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

skive

/ˈskaɪv/ verb, noun

Forms skives skiving skived

  1. verb (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) To avoid one's lessons or work (chiefly at school or university); shirk.
  2. noun (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Something very easy, where one can slack off without penalty. “Mr Smith's history classes are a total skive.”
  3. noun (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) An act of avoiding lessons or work.
  4. noun A rotating iron disk coated with oil and diamond dust used to polish the facets of a diamond.
  5. noun An angled cut or bevel at the edge of something.
  6. verb To pare or shave off the rough or thick parts of.

Synonyms

skive off skip play hooky play truant

Etymology

Probably from French esquiver (“slink away”), from Middle French esquiver (“to escape”), from Spanish esquivar (“to avoid, reject, elude”), from esquivo (“contemptuous, loathsome”), itself from Old French eschiver, of East Germanic origin, from Gothic *𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌿𐌷𐍃 (*skiuhs, “afraid, barefaced”), from Proto-Germanic *skeuhaz (“afraid, frightened”). Cognate with English shy, eschew.

Probably from Dutch schijf (“slice”), probably influenced by shive. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skībǭ (“a shaving; slice”).
Cognate to English shive, German Scheibe (“slice”), Old Norse skífa (“to cut into slices, slice”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The iron lap used by diamond polishers in finishing the facets of the gem.
  2. verb To pare or shave off the rough or thick parts of (hides or leather).

Etymology [Cf. Icel. skifa a shaving, slice, E. shive, sheave.]

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