Tuesday, 05 November, 2024

NRTC English: How to pronounce words that end in -age


NRTC English

How do you pronounce a number of English words that end in -age like village, mirage, camouflage, page, assuage etc?

A number of words in English end in -age such as village, mortgage, courage, luggage, baggage, assuage, manage, garage, mirage, forage, camouflage, sausage, rage, page, wage, hostage etc.

The pronunciation of these words differs, but there is a general rule behind it. In todayā€™s NRTC English, Iā€™ve curated a list of these words and how they are pronounced at their endings.

For most of these words, the ending ā€œ-age’ā€œ becomes -ÉŖdŹ’, such as village /ĖˆvÉŖlÉŖdŹ’/, hostage /ĖˆhɒstÉŖdŹ’/, lineage /ĖˆlÉŖnÉŖÉŖdŹ’/, forage /ĖˆfɒrÉŖdŹ’/, manage /ĖˆmanÉŖdŹ’/, courage /ĖˆkŹŒrÉŖdŹ’/, sausage /ĖˆsɒsÉŖdŹ’/, mortgage /ĖˆmɔĖÉ”ÉŖdŹ’/ and even assuage /əĖˆsweÉŖdŹ’/.

If you can pronounce the word ‘sit’, then you can pronounce the words above because the vowel /ÉŖ/ is pronounced just like these words.

The stress placement invariably falls on the first syllable of these words, except for ā€œassuageā€ because of the schwa on the first syllable.

I must say, at this junction juncture, that the addition of suffixes may change the -age to -eÉŖdŹ’ as in courageous /kəĖˆreÉŖdŹ’É™s/ and the stress placement has shifted to the second syllable because of the schwa, or retain the -ÉŖdŹ’ as in manager /ĖˆmanÉŖdŹ’É™/, villager /ĖˆvÉŖlÉŖdŹ’É™/ and many such words alike.

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Itā€™s most likely that many of the -age words youā€™re going to ‘meet’ in your lifetime will have ā€œ-age’ā€œ become -ÉŖdŹ’, like you have seen above.

However, in monosyllabic words such as page, rage, wage, cage etc, the -age sounds -eÉŖdŹ’ as in the word ā€œageā€, as in page /peÉŖdŹ’/, rage /reÉŖdŹ’/, wage /weÉŖdŹ’/, cage /keÉŖdŹ’/ etc.

On a final note, the -age becomes É‘Ė(d)Ź’ in words like mirage /ĖˆmÉŖrɑĖŹ’, ,mÉŖĖˆrɑĖŹ’/, garage /ĖˆÉ”arɑĖ(d)Ź’,ĖˆÉ”arÉŖdŹ’, ɔəĖˆrɑĖŹ’/, camouflage /ĖˆkaməflɑĖŹ’/, barrage /ĖˆbarɑĖŹ’/ and mĆ©nage /meÉŖĖˆnɑĖŹ’/.

This is relatively simple to pronounce. Pronounce the second syllable of the words above like the word ‘large’, as in the stressed vowel /ɑĖ/, and this sound /Ź’/ like you pronounce the second syllable of the word ‘seizure’, ‘measure’, ‘composure’ etc.


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