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

idiom

/ˈɪdiəm/ noun

Forms idioms idiomata used uncountably

  1. noun A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people. “In English, idiom requires the indefinite article in a phrase such as "she's an engineer", whereas in Spanish, idiom forbids it.”
  2. noun (programming) A programming construct or phraseology that is characteristic of the language.
  3. noun A language or language variety; specifically, a restricted dialect used in a given historical period, context, etc. “In the idiom of the day, they were sutlers, although today they'd probably be called vendors.”
  4. noun An established phrasal expression whose meaning may not be deducible from the literal meanings of its component words. “She often spoke in idioms, pining for salad days and complaining about pots calling the kettle black.”
  5. noun An artistic style (for example, in art, architecture, or music); an instance of such a style. “the idiom of the expressionists”

Synonyms

idiomaticness idiomaticity dialect language languoid lect vernacular expression form of words idiotism locution phrase parlance accent artistic style idiomatic expression phrasal idiom set phrase

Etymology

From Middle French idiome, and its source, Late Latin idioma, from Ancient Greek ἰδίωμα (idíōma, “a peculiarity, property, a peculiar phraseology, idiom”), from ἰδιοῦσθαι (idioûsthai, “to make one's own, appropriate to oneself”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private, personal, peculiar, separate”). By surface analysis, idi- + -om.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The syntactical or structural form peculiar to any language; the genius or cast of a language.
  2. noun An expression conforming or appropriate to the peculiar structural form of a language; in extend use, an expression sanctioned by usage, having a sense peculiar to itself and not agreeing with the logical sense of its structural form; also, the phrase forms peculiar to a particular author.

Etymology [F. idiome, L. idioma, fr. Gr. suus, and to E. so.]

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