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E English

Egypt Egyptian

Eng English

esp especially

est estimated

F Fahrenheit, French

fem feminine

fl flourished

fr from

ft feet

G, Ger German

Gk Greek

Gmc Germanic

Heb Hebrew

Hung Hungarian

Icel Icelandic

imit imitative

imper imperative

Ir Irish

irreg irregular

It, Ital Italian

Jp Japanese

K Kelvin

km kilometers

L Latin

LaF Louisiana French

LG Low German

LGk Late Greek

LHeb Late Hebrew

lit literally

LL Late Latin

m meters

masc masculine

MD Middle Dutch

ME Middle English

MexSp Mexican Spanish

MF Middle French

MGk Middle Greek

mi miles

ML Medieval Latin

modif modification

MS manuscript

Mt mount

neut neuter

NewEng New England

NGk New Greek

NHeb New Hebrew

NL New Latin

No North

Norw Norwegian

OE Old English

OF Old French

OIt Old Italian

ON Old Norse

OPer Old Persian

orig originally

part participle

Per Persian

perh perhaps

Pg Portuguese

Pol Polish

pp past participle

pres present, president

prob probably

pron pronoun, pronunciation

prp present participle

pseud pseudonym

r reigned

Russ Russian

Sc Scotch, Scots

Scand Scandinavian

ScGael Scottish Gaelic

Scot Scottish

Skt Sanskrit

Slav Slavic

So South

Sp, Span Spanish

St Saint

superl superlative

Sw Swedish

trans translation

Turk Turkish

US United States

USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

usu usually

var variant

vi verb intransitive

VL Vulgar Latin

vt verb transitive

W Welsh

Pronunciation Symbols

abut, collect, suppose

, humdrum

(in l, n) battle, cotton; (in l, m, r) French table, prisme, titre

operation, further

map, patch

day, fate

bother, cot, father

car, heart

now, out

baby, rib

chin, catch

did, adder

set, red

bare, fair

beat, easy

fifty, cuff

go, big

hat, ahead

whale

tip, banish

near, deer

site, buy

job, edge

kin, cook

German Bach, Scots loch

lily, cool

murmur, dim

nine, own

indicates that a preceding vowel is pronounced through both nose and mouth, as in French bon

sing, singer, finger, ink

bone, hollow

saw

boar, port

French bœuf, feu, German Hölle, Höhle

toy

pepper, lip

rarity

source, less

shy, mission

tie, attack

thin, ether

then, either

boot, few

put, pure

boor, tour

French rue, German füllen, fühlen

vivid, give

we, away

yard, cue

indicates that a preceding , , or is modified by having the tongue approximate the position for , as in French digne

zone, raise

vision, pleasure

slant line used in pairs to mark the beginning and end of a transcription:

mark at the beginning of a syllable that has primary (strongest) stress:

mark at the beginning of a syllable that has secondary (next-strongest) stress:

mark of a syllable division in pronunciations (the mark of end-of-line division in boldface entries is a centered dot ·)

indicate that what is symbolized between sometimes occurs and sometimes does not occur in the pronunciation of the word: bakery = ,

Basic English Grammar

The essence of the English language is the sentence. A sentence is a grammatically self-contained group of words that expresses a statement, a question, a command, a wish, or an exclamation. It is composed of a subject, about which something is said, and a predicate, which expresses what is said about the subject. The subject can be a single noun, a noun phrase, such as “the strong wind,” or a noun clause, such as “what he decides is important to all of us.” The predicate can be a single verb, a verb phrase, such as “will be going,” a verb and all its modifiers, such as “will be going as soon as the bus arrives,” or a verb and its complements, such as “gave his client the bad news.”

In English, word order is important. The subject usually comes first, but not necessarily:

An amusement park is across the river.

Across the river is an amusement park.

Is an amusement park across the river?

The grammar of English is concerned with the structure of these elements that make up a sentence. Every word in a sentence can be classified