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

calve

UK /kɑːv/ · US /kæv/ verb

Forms calves calving calved

  1. verb (intransitive) To give birth to a calf. “The farmer could tell Bessie was about to calve.”
  2. verb (intransitive) To assist in a cow’s giving birth to a calf. “The farmer calved Bessie for almost two hours.”
  3. verb (transitive) To give birth to (a calf).
  4. verb (intransitive, figuratively, especially of an ice shelf, a glacier, an ice sheet, or iceberg) To shed a large piece. “The glacier was starting to calve even as we watched.”
  5. verb (intransitive, figuratively, especially of an iceberg) To break off. “The sea was dangerous because of icebergs calving off the nearby glacier.”
  6. verb (transitive, figuratively, especially of an ice shelf, a glacier, an ice sheet, or iceberg) To shed (a large piece); to set loose (a mass of ice). “The glacier was starting to calve an iceberg even as we watched.”

Synonyms

break up have young

Etymology

From Middle English calven, from Old English *calfian, cealfian, from Proto-West Germanic *kalbōn, from Proto-Germanic *kalbōną (“to calve”), from *kalbaz (“calf”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian koolvje, Dutch kalven, German Low German kalven, German kalben, Swedish kalva, Icelandic kálfa.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To bring forth a calf. "Their cow calveth." Job xxi. 10.
  2. verb To bring forth young; to produce offspring.

Etymology [AS. cealfian. See Calf.]

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