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

sofa

UK /ˈsəʊ̯fə/ · US /ˈsoʊ̯fə/ noun, verb

Forms sofas sofaing sofaed sopha

  1. noun (Middle East architecture, archaic) A raised area of a building's floor, usually covered with carpeting, used for sitting.
  2. noun (furniture) An upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people. “He bought a big sofa two days before his relatives arrived.”
  3. verb To furnish with one or more sofas.
  4. verb To seat or lay down on a sofa.
  5. noun (historical) A slave soldier who served in the army of the Mali Empire.

Synonyms

couch lounge divan settee

Etymology

Borrowed from French sofa, ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick, covered with rich carpets and cushions and used for sitting”). Cognate with Aramaic צפא/Classical Syriac ܨܦܬܐ (ṣipā’, ṣeppəṯā, “mat, matting”). The word may have entered European languages via Muslim Iberia or through Turkish.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A long seat, usually with a cushioned bottom, back, and ends; - -much used as a comfortable piece of furniture.

Etymology [Ar. soffah, from saffa to dispose in order: cf. F. sofa, It.sofà.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “sofa” (best matches first).