Read these two sentences out loud:
"Here is a picture of two university graduates. Did they graduate with an advanced or graduate degree such as a Ph.D?"How did you pronounce the words in italics? The first "
graduates" is a noun of three syllables. The first syllable is stressed and the final or third syllable should be pronounced "its." The third use of
"graduate" is as an adjective describing what type of degree and is ALSO pronounced with "it" as the final syllable. However, the verb in the sentence "Did they
graduate..." ends with a syllable pronounced "ate." Also, in all three versions, the middle syllable "du" is pronounced "jew" not "do" and is linked to the "it" or "ate" with a "w" sound so that it sounds like either "wit" or "wait."
This IT vs. ATE ending distinction applies to several other words commonly used in the business, scientific, medical and academic professions. The version ending in IT is the noun or adjective and the pronunciation of ATE is the verb and this is a critical, obligatory distinction that determines meaning. These include
advocate, estimate,
syndicate and
duplicate where the "it" ending indicates a noun and
duplicate and
moderate where the "it" ending indicates an adjective, with duplicate being either ("a duplicate" vs. " a duplicate print"). In all of these words, the ATE ending is the verb. "My estimate (IT) isn't ready because I have to estimate (ATE) our subcontractor's fees."
