Ate (pronunciation)

From Awe

The past tense form of the irregular verb 'to eat' is ate. This is most usually pronounced as it looks, 'ATE'IPA: /eɪt/; but in some accents, and with some speakers, moswtly traditional, of RP, it is realized as 'ETT', IPA: /ɛt/. Allen's Fowler (1999) disagrees: "ate is normally pronounced to rhyme with bet, although pronunciation to rhyme with bait is also common."

AWE also has a note on a homograph at Ate (disambiguation).