Usually from French
barrage
beige
bon voyage
bricolage
camouflage
collage
concierge
corsage
cortege
décolletage
decoupage
dressage
entourage
espionage
fuselage
mélange
ménage
mirage
montage
moulage
persiflage
prestige
rouge
sabotage
triage
7 responses to “ge as in beige”
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Hi Alison,
Just wondering if this is where you would put the word garage? I’m teaching soft g and hard g this week and am not sure if the second g in garage is classified as soft or something else? I can’t find the word garage in any lists.
Hi Stacey, I think I sat on the fence over the word ‘garage’ as I’d segment the sounds as /g/, /schwa/, /r/, /ar/ /j/, but there are three other pronunciations listed in the Macquarie Dictionary, some people stress the first syllable, some people say /si/ as in vision for the final sound, and some people do both. So I just gave up and left it off my lists. I think you should group it in a way that makes sense to your students in their accent(s), it’s a bit like the word ‘either’, there isn’t one right/wrong way. Hope that makes sense, Alison
Hi Alison,
This week I’m teaching /zh/, so in this list, I think you should add:
massage
If you search up: “how to pronounce massage”, it says: ma · saazh
It includes /zh/, but this year, the second year of using Spelfabet, I’m just suggesting.
Thanks,
Miss Lulu (Mum of Jessica and Moira and the head teacher of YueCheng)
Hi, thanks for this feedback, I use the Macquarie Dictionary, because I have an Australian accent, and it gives several pronunciations of “massage”: /ˈmæsaʒ/ (say ‘masahzh), /-sadʒ/ (say -sahj), /məˈsaʒ/ (say muh’sahzh), /-ˈsadʒ/ (say -‘sahj). When a word has more than one common pronunciation I have tended to leave it off lists as it can be confusing for learners, and I end up with lots of people telling me I’ve got words on the wrong list(s). We probably don’t want words with more than one pronunciation used as cardinal examples of a sound-spelling relationship. But if you and your students all say “massage” with a /zh/ pronunciation there’s no reason not to put it on your own list. All the best, Alison
What about marriage?
I do not think marriage makes the ‘zh’ sound because you pronounce it ‘marrej’ or something like that. Do you think it is correct Alison?
Thank you
Correct, that’s why I don’t have ‘marriage’ on this list. The Macquarie Dictionary gives its pronunciation as /ˈmærɪdʒ/ (say ‘marij).