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

snook

/snuːk/ noun, verb, proper noun

Also a form of snoek

Forms snooks snooking snooked snoek

  1. noun A freshwater and marine fish of the family Centropomidae in the order Perciformes.
  2. noun Centropomus undecimalis (common snook).
  3. noun Any of various other ray-finned fishes in several families.
  4. verb To fish for snook.
  5. noun (UK, derogatory, as a gesture) A disrespectful gesture, performed by placing the tip of a thumb on one's nose with the fingers spread, and typically while wiggling the fingers back and forth.
  6. verb (obsolete) To sniff out.
  7. verb (obsolete) To lurk; to lie in ambush.
  8. proper noun A surname.

Etymology

From Dutch snoek (“pike, Esox”). Doublet of snoek; perhaps more distantly related to snake.

From the 19th century. Uncertain origin, but probably a variant of snoke. Compare also sneck (“nose”). These words are partly sound-symbolic, given the similarity to snoot, snout, sniff, sneeze etc.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To lurk; to lie in ambush. [Obs.]

Etymology [Prov. E. snook to search out, to follow by the scent; cf. Sw. snoka to lurk, LG. snöggen, snuckern, snökern, to snuffle, to smell about, to search for.]

Etymology [D. snoek.]

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