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

snowdrop

UK /ˈsnəʊ.dɹɒp/ · US /ˈsnoʊ.dɹɑp/ noun, verb

Forms snowdrops snowdropping snowdropped

  1. noun Any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia.
  2. verb (Australia, slang, ambitransitive) To steal clothing (especially women's underwear) from a clothesline.
  3. noun (RAF slang) A Royal Air Force police officer.

Synonyms

wood anemone Anemone quinquefolia

Etymology

From snow + drop.

From the plant snowdrop. Named for the white-topped caps sported by NCOs and warrant officers in the Royal Air Force Police.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A bulbous plant (Galanthus nivalis) bearing white flowers, which often appear while the snow is on the ground. It is cultivated in gardens for its beauty. Snowdrop tree. See Silver-bell tree, under Silver, a.

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