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

teeter

UK /ˈtiːtə/ · US /ˈtitəɹ/ verb, noun, proper noun

Forms teeters teetering teetered

  1. verb (intransitive) To tilt back and forth on an edge. “He teetered on the brink of the precipice.”
  2. verb (intransitive) To totter (move unsteadily).
  3. verb (figuratively) To be indecisive; to hesitate. “We teetered on the fence about buying getaway tickets and missed the opportunity.”
  4. verb (figuratively) To be close to becoming a typically negative situation. “Despite appearances, the firm was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.”
  5. noun (Canada, US) A teeter-totter or seesaw.
  6. proper noun A surname from German.

Synonyms

seesaw teeter-totter teetertotter teeterboard tilting board dandle board totter

Etymology

Alteration of titter.

Americanized spelling of German Dieter.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To move up and down on the ends of a balanced plank, or the like, as children do for sport; to seesaw; to titter; to titter-totter. [U. S.]

Etymology [Prov. E. titter to tremble, to seesaw; cf. Icel. titra to tremble, OHG. zittaron, G. zittern.]

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