audio example by a male speaker
audio example by a female speaker
the above transcription of shelf is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.
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An example use of shelf in a speech by a native speaker of american english:
“… oh there goes this shelf all right now …”
A shelf is a flat horizontal surface.
the word shelf occurs in english on average 24.3 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for B2 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.