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

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 today’s NRTC English, I’ve curated a list of these words and how they are pronounced at their endings.

For most of these words, the ending “-age’“ becomes -ɪdʒ, such as village /ˈvɪlɪdʒ/, hostage /ˈhɒstɪdʒ/, lineage /ˈlɪnɪɪdʒ/, forage /ˈfɒrɪdʒ/, manage /ˈmanɪdʒ/, courage /ˈkʌrɪdʒ/, sausage /ˈsɒsɪdʒ/, mortgage /ˈmɔːɡɪdʒ/ and even assuage /əˈsweɪdʒ/.

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

The stress placement invariably falls on the first syllable of these words, except for “assuage” 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 -eɪdʒ as in courageous /kəˈreɪdʒəs/ and the stress placement has shifted to the second syllable because of the schwa, or retain the -ɪdʒ as in manager /ˈmanɪdʒə/, villager /ˈvɪlɪdʒə/ and many such words alike.

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It’s most likely that many of the -age words you’re going to ‘meet’ in your lifetime will have “-age’“ become -ɪdʒ, like you have seen above.

However, in monosyllabic words such as page, rage, wage, cage etc, the -age sounds -eɪdʒ as in the word “age”, as in page /peɪdʒ/, rage /reɪdʒ/, wage /weɪdʒ/, cage /keɪdʒ/ etc.

On a final note, the -age becomes ɑː(d)ʒ in words like mirage /ˈmɪrɑːʒ, ,mɪˈrɑːʒ/, garage /ˈɡarɑː(d)ʒ,ˈɡarɪdʒ, ɡəˈrɑːʒ/, camouflage /ˈkaməflɑːʒ/, barrage /ˈbarɑːʒ/ and ménage /meɪˈnɑːʒ/.

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