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

smatter

UK /ˈsmætə/ · US /ˈsmætəɹ/ verb, noun

Forms smatters smattering smattered smatterest smatteredst smattereth

  1. verb (also figurative, obsolete) To make (someone or something) dirty; to bespatter, to soil.
  2. verb (by extension, US) To hit (someone or something) with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
  3. verb To approach or study (something, such as a subject) superficially; to dabble in.
  4. verb To speak (a language or words) with only a superficial knowledge of it.
  5. verb (US) To hit with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
  6. verb To have a slight, superficial knowledge of something; to dabble.
  7. verb (obsolete) To talk ignorantly or superficially; to babble, to chatter.
  8. noun A shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject.
  9. noun A small amount or number of something. “a smatter of applause”

Synonyms

assoil beclart bedaub bedirty imbrue (especially with blood) bedizen befile befilth befoul begrime beray beshit besmear besmirch besully bewray blacken blot blur clat dabble play around babble blather blether blither

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English smateren, smatteren, smater, smatere (“to make dirty, defile; to talk idly, chatter; to speak foolishly”); further etymology uncertain, compare the following:
* Middle English smotten (“to corrupt, debase, defile”) (whence English smot (obsolete)), related to Late Middle High German smotzen, a variant of smutzen (whence modern German schmutzen (“to become dirty or soiled; to make dirty, soil”)), from smuz (“dirt”).
* Danish smadre (“to smash”), German schmettern (“to smash; to resound”) (from Middle High German smetern (“to chatter; to rattle; (dialectal) to make a smacking sound”)); Norwegian Bokmål smadre (“to smash”), Swedish smattra (“to make short, sharp, quickly repeating noises, patter, rattle”), possibly originally onomatopoeic. However, the Oxford English Dictionary says “real connection is very doubtful”.
The noun is derived from the verb.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To talk superficially or ignorantly; to babble; to chatter.
  2. verb To have a slight taste, or a slight, superficial knowledge, of anything; to smack.
  3. verb To talk superficially about.
  4. verb To gain a slight taste of; to acquire a slight, superficial knowledge of; to smack. Chaucer.

Etymology [OE. smateren to make a noise; cf. Sw. smattra to clatter, to crackle, G. schmettern to dash, crash, to warble, quaver.]

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