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Expanding your vocabulary: interesting suffixes -age and -ate

'15.01.2025'

ForumDaily New York

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As you gradually improve your English and expand your vocabulary, you increasingly notice its influence on other languages. New York ForumDaily talks about the suffixes -age and -ate, which came to English from French.

Suffix -age

Most words with suffix -age are of French origin. However, only a small part of them in the process of borrowing retained their specific sound of the original language, preserving the softness of the French intonation. This makes them especially sonorous and recognizable.

Some of these words came into English from Old French, and some from Modern French. During the Norman Conquest of England (11th century) and later, French had a huge influence on English, especially on vocabulary related to art, war, cooking, and bureaucracy. French was the language of the elite in England for several centuries, and the borrowed words stuck in their original sounds.

examples:

  • camouflage /ˈkæməflɑːʒ/ – camouflage;
  • espionage /ˈespɪənɑːʒ/ – espionage;
  • garage /ɡəˈrɑːʒ/ – garage;
  • entourage /ˈɑːntʊrɑːʒ/ – surroundings;
  • sabotage /ˈsæbətɑːʒ/ – sabotage;
  • massage /məˈsɑːʒ/ – massage.

Suffix -ate

Many words ending in -ate came into English from Latin via French. In Latin, the ending -atus (from participles) was used to describe both state and action.

В English Verb forms retained their full pronunciation, while nouns and adjectives underwent phonetic reduction to emphasize their descriptive function.

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This difference is explained by the principle of “economy of speech”:

  • nouns and adjectives are often found in stream speech, so their pronunciation is simplified;
  • Verbs require more distinct pronunciation, emphasis, to emphasize the action and dynamics.

examples:

  • moderate /ˈmɑːdərət/ – adj., moderate,
    /ˈmɑːdəreɪt/ – v., to restrain;
  • separate /ˈseprət/ – adj., separate,
    /ˈsepəreɪt/ – v., to separate;
  • advocate /ˈædvəkət/ – noun, defender,
    /ˈædvəkeɪt/ – v., to defend;
  • estimate /ˈestɪmət/ – noun, estimate,
    /ˈestɪmeɪt/ – v., to evaluate;
  • deliberate /dɪˈlɪbərət/ – adj., intentional,
    /dɪˈlɪbəreɪt/ – v., to think about;
  • coordinate /kəʊˈɔːrdɪnət/ – noun, coordinate,
    /kəʊˈɔːrdɪneɪt/ – v., to coordinate.
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