Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings
Vowels
| iː | see | ɪ | sit | e / ɛ | bed | æ | cat |
| ɑː | father | ɒ | hot (UK) | ɔː | law | ʊ | put |
| uː | too | ʌ | cup | ɜː | bird | ə | about |
| eɪ | day | aɪ | my | ɔɪ | boy | aʊ | now |
| əʊ / oʊ | go (UK / US) | ɪə | near | eə | hair | ʊə | tour |
Consonants that look unusual
| θ | thin | ð | this | ʃ | she | ʒ | measure |
| tʃ | church | dʒ | judge | ŋ | sing | j | yes |
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
Results for “flightless bird”
- aepyorniformes nounhuge extinct flightless birds: elephant birds
- dinornithiformes nouna ratite bird order: recently extinct flightless birds of New Zealand
- dodo nounA large, flightless bird, †Raphus cucullatus, related to the pigeon, that is now extinct (since the 1600s) and was native to Mauritius.
- elephant bird nounAny of the very large extinct flightless birds that make up the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis within family Aepyornithidae, and lived in…
- emu noun, proper nounA large flightless bird native to Australia, Dromaius novaehollandiae.
- flightless adjective(usually) Describing kinds of birds that normally cannot fly, such as the penguin, ostrich, and emu.
- kiwi noun, verb, adjective, proper nounA flightless bird of the order Apterygiformes native to New Zealand.
- moa nounAny of several species of large, extinct, flightless birds of the family Dinornithidae that were native to New Zealand; until its extinctio…
- nandu nounrhea (large, flightless birds)
- ostrich noun(ornithology) A large flightless bird of the order Struthioniformes.
- ratite adjective, nounPertaining to running, flightless birds with no keels on their sternums (as opposed to carinate).
- rhea noun, proper nounA large flightless bird of the order Rheiformes, native to South America.
- takahē nounA species of large flightless bird in the Rallidae family, endemic to New Zealand.
- weka noun(New Zealand) Gallirallus australis, a flightless bird of New Zealand in the family Rallidae with brown plumage.