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

Chinese

UK /t͡ʃaɪˈniːz/ · US /ˌt͡ʃaɪˈniz/ adjective, proper noun, noun

Forms Chineses

  1. adjective Of, from, or related to China, particularly now the People's Republic of China. “China has been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party since 1949.”
  2. adjective Of, from, or related to the people of China, particularly the Han Chinese and their culture whether in China or overseas. “Important Chinese holidays celebrated around the world include the Chinese New Year ("Spring Festival"), Tomb Sweeping Day, and the Mid-Autumn Festival.”
  3. adjective Of, from, or related to a language native to Han Chinese persons, often used generally of Chinese characters or particularly to refer to Standard Mandarin. “There are four Chinese tones... five, if you count the neutral one.”
  4. adjective (sometimes offensive) As exotic, unusual, backwards, or unorganized as someone or something from China. “It's all Chinese to me.”
  5. adjective (non-subsective, prepositive, in set phrases, sometimes offensive) Used with a noun to indicate a referent different from, and seemingly more exotic or unusual than, the base noun's referent.
  6. adjective (of film and video lighting, offensive, dated) Having barn doors with a horizontal orientation.
  7. proper noun (uncountable) The Standard Chinese language, written in Chinese characters and spoken and spelled using Standard Mandarin pronunciation. “你好 is read “Nǐ hǎo” and means “Hello” in Chinese.”
  8. proper noun (uncountable) The branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Southern Min, and other closely related language varieties and dialects. “Suzhounese and Hakka are lesser-known varieties of Chinese.”
  9. proper noun (uncountable) The logographic writing system shared by most Sinitic languages. “Hong Kong still uses traditional Chinese.”
  10. noun (countable, chiefly in the plural) A native, inhabitant, or citizen of China, particularly of the People's Republic of China. “The Chinese have an incredible history.”
  11. noun (countable, chiefly in the plural) A member of the Han Chinese ethnic group, whether in China or overseas. “The Chinese are present in all parts of the world.”

Synonyms

Sinic Sino- Seric Serian Serican Sinaean Sinesian Cathayan Chinesian Putonghua Guoyu Huayu Guanhua Hanyu Zhongwen Han Chinaman Chinee chink Sinese Taiwanese Formosan

Etymology

From China + -ese under influence of Portuguese chinês, replacing older Chinish. Doublet of chinois. In its orientalist sense of "generically exotic, backwards, or poorly organized", sometimes a deliberate marketing strategy to increase sales, as with the German Chinese checkers. In its sense related to the orientation of stage lighting's barn doors, a reference to a supposed resemblance to East Asian eyes.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Of or pertaining to China; peculiar to China. Chinese paper.
  2. noun A native or natives of China, or one of that yellow race with oblique eyelids who live principally in China.
  3. noun sing.

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