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

hearken

UK /ˈhɑːk(ə)n/ · US /ˈhɑɹkən/ verb

Forms hearkens hearkening hearkened hearkenest hearkenedst hearkeneth harken

  1. verb (transitive, archaic except poetic) To hear (something) with attention; to have regard to (something).
  2. verb (intransitive) To listen; to attend or give heed to what is uttered; to hear with attention, compliance, or obedience.
  3. verb (intransitive, obsolete) To enquire; to seek information.

Synonyms

hark harken

Etymology

From Middle English herkenen (“to listen (attentively); to pay attention, take heed”) [and other forms], from Old English hercnian, heorcnian, hyrcnian, from *heorcian (“to hark”) infixed with -n-, from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared, hear well”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) + *h₂ṓws (“ear”) + *-yéti (denominative suffix), thus equivalent to hark + -en.
The spelling of the English word was probably influenced by hear; a similarly analogical pronunciation existed in Early Modern English.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To listen; to lend the ear; to attend to what is uttered; to give heed; to hear, in order to obey or comply.
  2. verb To inquire; to seek information. [Obs.] "Hearken after their offense." Shak.
  3. verb To hear by listening. [Archaic]
  4. verb To give heed to; to hear attentively. [Archaic]

Etymology [OE. hercnen, hercnien, AS. hercnian, heorcnian, fr. hiéran, h, to hear; akin to OD. harcken, horcken, LG. harken, horken, G. horchen. See Hear, and cf. Hark..]

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