English Pronunciation Tip of the Day
Tip 4
Category: Word
endings
Author: JAM
<-ate>
The word ending <-ate> is pronounced in two different ways. If the word is a noun or an adjective, then the ending is pronounced /@t/ (or /It/, but that's a bit old-fashioned these days!). If the word is a verb, then the ending is pronounced /eIt/. This means that there are some pairs (or even triples) of words with exactly the same spelling, which are pronounced differently depending on whether they are used as a noun/adjective or as a verb. Here are some examples (only the first and the last have sound clips):
| /@t/ | /eIt/ | |||
| noun | adjective | verb | ||
| associate | associate | associate | ||
| advocate | advocate | |||
| confederate | confederate | confederate | ||
| deliberate | deliberate | |||
| graduate | graduate | graduate | ||
| predicate | predicate | |||
| separate | separate | |||
You may have noticed, if you listened to the sound clips, that I pronounced separate as an adjective with two syllables: /sepr@t/, but as a verb it had three syllables: /sep@reIt/. The adjective can have three syllables: /sep@r@t/, but a /@/ before /r/ or /l/ in words like this is often deleted. You cannot delete the /@/ in the words ending in /eIt/, however.