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

toff

UK /tɒf/ · US /tɔf/ noun

Forms toffs

  1. noun (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person.
  2. noun (UK, Ireland, derogatory) A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority.

Synonyms

macaroni popinjay swell barbermonger beau blade blood buck carpet knight cockscomb dandy dike dood dude dudelet exquisite fashionable fast man fine gentleman fop nob

Antonyms

oik pleb

Etymology

Probably an alteration of tuft, referring to the gold tassel on the cap worn by titled undergraduates at English universities.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A fop; a beau; a swell. [Slang, Eng.] Kipling.

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