Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

An ordinal is a type of number. Ordinals are used like adjectives, e.g. He was the third victim; like pronouns, e.g. She took the first place and I took the second … the second of the two teams; like adverbs, e.g. The other team came first; and like determiners, e.g. Fourth place goes to Timmy .

PHRASAL VERB

A phrasal verb consists of a verb and one or more particles, e.g. look after, look back, look down on . Some phrasal verbs are linking verbs or passive verbs.

PHRASE

Phrases are groups of words which are used together with little variation and which have a meaning of their own.

PREDET

A predeterminer is used in a noun group before a, the, or another determiner.

PREFIX

A prefix is a letter or group of letters, such as un- or multi- , which is added to the beginning of a word in order to form another word. For example, the prefix un- is added to happy to form unhappy .

PREP

A preposition begins a prepositional phrase and is followed by a noun group or a present participle. Patterns for prepositions are shown in the dictionary only if they are restricted in some way.

PRON

Pronouns are used to refer to someone or something that has already been mentioned or whose identity is known.

QUANT

A quantifier comes before of and a noun group.

QUEST

A question word is a word that is used to begin a question, for example, a wh-word.

SUFFIX

A suffix is a letter or group of letters such as –ly or –ness , which is added to the end of a word in order to form a new word, usually of a different word class.

V-LINK

A link verb connects a subject and a complement. Link verbs most commonly occur in the patterns [V adj] and [V n]. Most link verbs do not occur in the passive voice.

V-PASSIVE

A passive verb occurs in the passive voice only. Some phrasal verbs are passive verbs.

Pronunciation

IPA symbols

Vowel

Sounds

ɑː

c

a

lm,

a

h

ɑːʳ

he

a

rt, f

a

r

æ

a

ct, m

a

ss

a

I

d

i

ve, cr

y

a

I

əʳ

f

i

re, t

y

re

aʊ

ou

t, d

ow

n

aʊəʳ

fl

ou

r, s

ou

r

e

m

e

t, l

e

nd, p

e

n

e

I

s

ay

, w

ei

ght

eəʳ

f

ai

r, c

a

re

I

f

i

t, w

i

n

iː

m

e

, s

ee

m

I

əʳ

n

ea

r, b

ea

rd

ɒ

l

o

t, sp

o

t

oʊ

n

o

te, c

oa

t

ɔː

cl

aw

, m

au

l

ɔʳ

m

o

re, c

o

rd

ɔ

I

b

oy

, j

oi

nt

ʊ

c

ou

ld, st

oo

d

uː

y

ou

,

u

se

ʊəʳ

l

u

re, p

u

re

ɜːʳ

t

u

rn, th

i

rd

ʌ

f

u

nd, m

u

st

ə

the first vowel in

a

bout

əʳ

the first vowel in

f

o

rgotten

i

the second vowel in

ver

y

u

the second vowel in

act

u

al

Consonant

Sounds

b

b

ed, ru

b

d

d

one, re

d

f

f

it, i

f

g

g

ood, do

g

h

h

at,

h

orse

y

y

ellow,

y

ou

k

k

ing, pi

ck

l

l

ip, bi

ll

ᵊl

hand

l

e, pane

l

m

m

at, ra

m

n

n

ot, ti

n

ᵊn

hidde

n

, writte

n

p

p

ay, li

p

r

r

un,

r

ead

s

s

oon, bu

s

t

t

alk, be

t

v

v

an, lo

v

e

w

w

in,

w

ool

ʰw

wh

y,

wh

eat

x

lo

ch

z

z

oo, bu

zz

ʃ

sh

ip, wi

sh

ʒ

mea

s

ure, lei

s

ure

ŋ

si

ng

, worki

ng

tʃ

ch

eap, wit

ch

θ

th

in, my

th

ð

th

en, ba

the

dʒ

j

oy, brid

ge

Stress

Stress is shown by underlining the vowel in the stressed syllable:

two /tuː /

result /r I zʌ lt/

disappointing /d I səpɔ I nt I ŋ/

When a word is spoken in isolation, stress falls on the syllables which have vowels which are underlined. If there is one syllable underlined, it will have primary stress.

‘TWO’

‘reSULT’

If two syllables are underlined, the first will have secondary stress, and the second will have primary stress.

‘DISapPOINTing’

A few words are shown with three underlined syllables, for example ‘disqualification’ /d I skwɒ l I f I ke I ʃ ^ə n/. In this case, the third underlined syllable will have primary stress, while the secondary stress may be on the first or second syllable:

‘DISqualifiCAtion’ or ‘disQUALifiCAtion’

In the case of compound words, where the pronunciation of each part is given separately, the stress pattern is shown by underlining the headword: ‘o ff-pea k’, ‘fir st-cla ss’, but ‘o ff day’.

Stressed syllables

When words are used in context, the way in which they are pronounced depends upon the information units that are constructed by the speaker. For example, a speaker could say:

‘the reSULT was disapPOINTing’

‘it was a DISappointing reSULT’

‘it was VERy disappointing inDEED’

In (3), neither of the two underlined syllables in disappointing /d I səpɔ I nt I ŋ/ receives either primary or secondary stress. This shows that it is not possible for a dictionary to predict whether a particular syllable will be stressed in context.

It should be noted, however, that in the case of adjectives with two stressed syllables, the second syllable often loses its stress when it is used before a noun:

‘an OFF-peak FARE’

‘a FIRST-class SEAT’

Two things should be noted about the marked syllables: