Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

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.

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)

-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.

pay off

verb

Forms pays off paying off paid off

verb (transitive, informal) To bribe, especially to deter oversight. “I thought the guards would give us trouble, but apparently he had paid them off.”
verb (intransitive) To become worthwhile; to produce a net benefit. “Her years of Spanish classes finally paid off when she found herself in Mexico and realized she could communicate with people.”
verb (transitive) To pay back; to repay. “He paid off the loan three months early.”
verb (transitive) To pay back (repay) the entirety of a loan, thereby effecting the release of a lien on (the thing that was financed). “This contract requires you to pay off the car by 2025.”
verb (transitive) To pay and discharge (an employee).
verb (nautical) To fall to leeward, as the head of a vessel under sail.

Synonyms

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “pay off”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details