Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

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)

-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.

soft-pedal

UK /ˌsɒf(t)ˈpɛdl̩/ · US /ˈsɔf(t)ˌpɛdəl/ verb

Forms soft-pedals soft-pedaling soft-pedalling soft-pedaled soft-pedalled

verb To reduce the volume of (music, a sound, etc.).
verb (figuratively) To reduce the force or impact of (something); to damp, to mute; especially, to minimize the less desirable aspects of (something); to play down, to tone down.
verb (figuratively) To attempt to persuade someone about (something) through understatement, so that the listener accepts the good points as obvious.
verb (intransitive, figuratively) Chiefly followed by on: to act in a less assertive or forceful manner.

Synonyms

From soft pedal (“leftmost foot-pedal on most pianos which, when pushed, dampens the strings and so softens the note played”, noun).

Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “soft-pedal”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details