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 todayās NRTC English, Iāve curated a list of these words and how they are pronounced at their endings.
For most of these words, the ending ā-age’ā becomes -ÉŖdŹ, such as village /ĖvÉŖlÉŖdŹ/, hostage /ĖhÉstÉŖdŹ/, lineage /ĖlÉŖnÉŖÉŖdŹ/, forage /ĖfÉrÉŖdŹ/, manage /ĖmanÉŖdŹ/, courage /ĖkŹrÉŖdŹ/, sausage /ĖsÉsÉŖdŹ/, mortgage /ĖmÉĖÉ”ÉŖdŹ/ and even assuage /ÉĖsweÉŖdŹ/.
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 āassuageā 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 /kÉĖreÉŖdŹÉs/ and the stress placement has shifted to the second syllable because of the schwa, or retain the -ÉŖdŹ as in manager /ĖmanÉŖdŹÉ/, villager /ĖvÉŖlÉŖdŹÉ/ and many such words alike.
ALSO READ
Itās most likely that many of the -age words youāre going to ‘meet’ in your lifetime will have ā-age’ā 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 āageā
, as in page /peÉŖdŹ/, rage /reÉŖdŹ/, wage /weÉŖdŹ/, cage /keÉŖdŹ/ etc.
On a final note, the -age becomes ÉĖ(d)Ź in words like mirage /ĖmÉŖrÉĖŹ, ,mÉŖĖrÉĖŹ/, garage /ĖÉ”arÉĖ(d)Ź,ĖÉ”arÉŖdŹ, É”ÉĖrÉĖŹ/, camouflage /ĖkamÉflÉĖŹ/, barrage /ĖbarÉĖŹ/ and mĆ©nage /meÉŖĖnÉĖŹ/.
This is relatively simple to pronounce. Pronounce the second syllable of the words above like the word ‘large’, as in the stressed vowel /ÉĖ/, and this sound /Ź/ like you pronounce the second syllable of the word ‘seizure’, ‘measure’, ‘composure’ etc.
Discover more from News Round The Clock
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.