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

tattoo

UK /tæˈtuː/ · US /tæˈtu/ noun, verb

Also a form of tat

Forms tattoos tattooes tattooing tattooed tattu

  1. noun An image made on a body part, usually the skin with ink and a needle.
  2. noun A method of decorating a body part, usually the skin, by inserting colored substances under the surface with a sharp instrument (usually a solenoid-driven needle).
  3. verb To apply a tattoo to (someone or something).
  4. verb (baseball) To hit the ball hard, as if to figuratively leave a tattoo on the ball. “Jones tattoos one into the gap in left; that will clear the bases.”
  5. noun (nautical) A signal played five minutes before taps (lights out).
  6. noun (military) A signal by drum or bugle ordering soldiers to return to their quarters.
  7. noun (military) A military display or pageant.
  8. noun A rhythmic tapping.
  9. verb To tap rhythmically on, to drum.
  10. noun A pony of a certain breed from India.

Etymology

From earlier tattaow, tattow, a borrowing from a Polynesian language, e.g. Samoan tatau (“tattoo; to tap, to strike”).

From earlier tap-to, borrowed from Dutch taptoe, from tap (“tap; faucet on a cask”) + toe (“to; shut”). More at tap, to.

From Hindi टट्टू (ṭaṭṭū).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A beat of drum, or sound of a trumpet or bugle, at night, giving notice to soldiers to retreat, or to repair to their quarters in garrison, or to their tents in camp. The Devil's tattoo. See under Devil.
  2. verb To color, as the flesh, by pricking in coloring matter, so as to form marks or figures which can not be washed out.
  3. noun An indelible mark or figure made by puncturing the skin and introducing some pigment into the punctures; --a mode of ornamentation practiced by various barbarous races, both in ancient and modern times, and also by some among civilized nations, especially by sailors.

Etymology [Earlier taptoo, D. taptoe; tap a tap, faucet + toe to, shut (i. e., the taps, or drinking houses, shut from the soldiers).]

Etymology [Of Polynesian origin; cf. New Zealand ta to tattoo, tatu puncturation (in Otaheite).]

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