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How can one remember the pronunciations of consummate, which depend on its state as a verb or adjective?

I venture that because its verbal definition involves intercourse, thus the "mate" rhymes with the single noun mate. But is this right?

Moreover, what's the rationale or reasoning behind the differences?

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    Note that the same pattern occurs in the cases of appropriate (verb) and appropriate (adjective), deliberate (verb) and deliberate (adjective), separate (verb) and separate (adjective), and animate (verb) and animate (adjective); only the members of the last pair end in -mate.
    – Sven Yargs
    Jun 29, 2014 at 7:42
  • @SvenYargs: Consummate observation! My deep thanks! Please feel free to recast it as an answer for which I'll upvote!
    – user50720
    Jun 29, 2014 at 9:42
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    Consummate as a verb did not start life related to mate. That use is a euphemism, as in close the deal. While strongly married to the baby-making thing, consummate applies to other final touches. Seal the deal with an X or with an F. May 14, 2020 at 19:04

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Whenever the stress in such -ate words is not on the final syllable, then generally the last syllable will be:

  • for verbs: /eɪt/ [long vowel]

  • for adjectives: /ət/ [short schwa vowel]

The speaker may use a glottal stop in either case as an allophone of the /t/.

When the word stress does fall on the final syllable, however, the word will end in /eɪt/ regardless, even if it is an adjective:

  • irate /aɪˈreɪt/

If the word is a verb, then usually the suffix -tion can be used to convert it into a noun. You will note in this case that the /eɪ/ sound will not change, as it will be full length in this position. This is because it will take the main stress in the word. The -tion suffix actually requires the preceding syllable to be stressed.

In other words if the word is a verb it should have the same vowel sound as the -tion noun. It's not really a case of a rationale, though. It's more just how the language has evolved - not how it's been designed!

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  • @lapressentiment thanks for alerting me to the typo! Jun 29, 2014 at 2:43
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    Note that irate can also be pronounced with initial stress (I would personally never have final stress), though it retains its /ei/ diphthong. The same goes for adjectives like innate, prostrate (which to my knowledge always has initial stress), etc. Jun 29, 2014 at 10:54
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Prostrate I'd certainly agree with. But as a generalisation/guide the rule above is pretty sound - prostrate is one the reasons for the 'generally' hedge. Irate and innate, though, are standardly second syllable stress, to my knowledge and after a couple of Br and Gen Am dictionary checks. I know that in some non-standard American varieties irate can be first syllable. :) Jun 29, 2014 at 11:45
  • @Janus: OED says of prostrate (verb) Brit. /prɒˈstreɪt/, /prəˈstreɪt/, U.S. /ˈprɑˌstreɪt/. That's how I say it (noun/adjective: stress first syllable, verb: stress second syllable). Which slightly surprises me since I have the general impression Americans are more likely that Brits to distinguish vern/noun forms on the basis of stress placement. Jun 29, 2014 at 12:14
  • @FumbleFingers Interesting observation FF. Do you know what it says for the adj.? Don't have access to OED at the mo ... Jun 29, 2014 at 16:16
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Consummate is one of a fairly large number of -ate words in English whose adjective and verb forms are always, usually, or often pronounced differently. Here are 23 other words that follow this pattern:

aggregate

animate

appropriate

approximate

concatenate

correlate

degenerate

deliberate

designate

deviate

duplicate

enervate

incarnate

legitimate

obligate

precipitate

predicate

predominate

regenerate

reticulate

separate

striate

terminate

This list includes the following endings: two -cate, two -gate, three -iate, two -late, three -mate, five -nate, four -rate, one -tate, and one -vate.

According to Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003), the adjective form of designate is more often pronounced like the verb form than not, but the only multisyllable -ate words I could find that the dictionary says are always pronounced the same in both their adjective and verb forms are these two:

consecrate

serrate

Another word that may be an exception is this one:

reprobate

Unfortunately, the Eleventh Collegiate doesn't bother to provide a pronunciation for this word as an adjective; but I believe that it is usually (if not always) voiced the same as the verb form. The adjective fenestrate would constitute a fourth exception, if the Collegiate Dictionary listed a verb form of that word as well, but the closest it comes to such a verb is defenestrate, which doesn't have a matching adjective form.

The most striking thing about the -ate words listed here is that all but two of them (serrate and striate) are at least three syllables long. In English, most two-syllable -ate verbs ("collate, create, debate, deflate, dilate, locate, mandate, migrate, relate, truncate, etc.) do not have identical adjective forms, and most two-syllable -ate adjectives (oblate, ornate, ovate, palmate, etc.) have no matching verb.

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  • I should add prostrate (which Janus Bahs Jacquet brings up in a comment above) to the list of clear exceptions, alongside consecrate, reprobate, and serrate.
    – Sven Yargs
    Jun 29, 2014 at 23:29
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The word, as a verb, actually means "to bring to its highest level", and as a verb, it is pronounced with a "long a" in the final syllable (to rhyme with "mate"). Its only association with sexual intercourse is in raising a marriage (or other relationship) to something beyond the mere social form -- an unconsummated marriage can be declared null (as if it had never happened).

As an adjective, it mean "of the highest calibre/quality", and is pronounced with an unstressed final syllable (nearly rhyming with "it" in most dialects).

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  • As a noun, though, per OP's question, it refers to a kind of broth, pronounced with the accent on the final syllable, but the t silent. ;-) Jun 14, 2014 at 14:17
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    @BrianDonovan - are you referring to consommé?
    – bye
    Jun 14, 2014 at 14:19
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    @Brian: Never heard of that one. Are you sure you're not thinking of consommé? Jun 14, 2014 at 14:19
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    @bye: It's worth noting that (I think) the general pattern tends to be that the stress in a verb form moves to the first syllable in noun or adjective forms. That's certainly what happens in present, upset, permit, absent, etc. Jun 14, 2014 at 14:24
  • @BrianDonovan Waiter! There's a penis in my soup! You've made my day (although I think your smiley should have been in bold) ;-)
    – Frank
    Jun 14, 2014 at 14:25

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