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

tandem

/ˈtændəm/ noun, adverb, adjective, verb

Forms tandems tandeming tandemed

  1. noun (countable) A carriage pulled by two or more draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other, both providing pulling power but only the animal in front being able to steer.
  2. noun Two draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other.
  3. noun A thing with two components arranged one behind the other. “If you want a canoe that can seat both of you comfortably, you’ll need a tandem.”
  4. noun (medicine) A hollow metal tube containing radioactive material, inserted through the vagina into the uterus to treat gynecological cancer.
  5. noun (countable) A group of two or more machines, people, etc., working together; hence (uncountable), close collaboration.
  6. noun (uncountable, education) A method of language learning based on mutual exchange, where ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the other person wants to learn.
  7. adverb One behind the other; in single file. “The horses were harnessed tandem.”
  8. adverb (figurative) In close collaboration; collaboratively, cooperatively.
  9. adjective With two components arranged one behind the other. “tandem canoe    tandem engine”
  10. adjective (figurative) Working together collaboratively; collaborative, cooperative. “Their skillful tandem work made the project quick and successful.”
  11. verb (ambitransitive) Synonym of tandemize (“(transitive) to harness or drive (two draught animals, generally draught horses) one behind the other; to set up (two or more things, such as pieces or equipment) to work in tandem or together; (intransitive) to drive a tandem (‘carriage pulled by two or more draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other’)”)

Synonyms

in tandem tandemize bicycle-built-for-two tandem bicycle

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Latin tandem (“of time: at last, at length, finally”), applied humorously in English to two horses harnessed “at length” (that is, in a single line) instead of side-by-side. Tandem is derived from tam (“so, to such an extent”) + -dem (demonstrative suffix).
The adjective, adverb, and verb are derived from the noun.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adverb One after another; --said especially of horses harnessed and driven one before another, instead of abreast.
  2. noun A team of horses harnessed one before the other. "He drove tandems." Thackeray. Tandem engine, a compound steam engine having two or more steam cylinders in the same axis, close to one another.

Etymology [L. tandem at length (of time only), punningly taken as meaning, lengthwise.]

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