Reference page

Spelling: age

Pronunciation [eɪdʒ]

Single syllable words ending -age are pronounced [eɪdʒ] as in AGE (i.e. the vowel [eɪ] as in FACE and the consonant [dʒ] as in JAY.)

• age, cage, gage, mage, page, phage, rage, sage, stage, wage

As are compounds of these words:

• teenage, underage
• birdcage, encage
• greengage
• homepage
• outrage, enrage
• backstage, upstage, offstage, multistage, restage
• macrophage, bacteriophage

And also:

• assuage
• engage, disengage
• rampage
• presage

Pronunciation [ɪdʒ]

Every other -age word which ends in the consonant [dʒ] is pronounced with an unstressed vowel [ɪ] as in KIT.

i.e. the same as -idge in bridge or fridge

• e.g. image, message, language, village

See CUBE dictionary: spelling age#, pronunciation ɪdʒ# for more examples.

Pronunciation [ɑʒ]

The following are loan words from French. They are pronounced with the vowel [ɑ] as in START, and the consonant [ʒ] as in ASIA

• massage, camouflage, mirage, montage, collage, entourage, dressage, sabotage, triage, arbitrage, découpage, espionage, barrage, corsage, décolletage
• garage (variably; for many speakers this is pronounced as -idge)