This one was suggested to me by my friend, Laura Creaven. I do like it when people suggest Pairs to me – so keep them coming, everyone!
Here we have two cooking terms which look oh-so-similar – but one is a noun and one is a verb!
A marinade is a mixture of oils, spices and vinegar in which we soak meat, fish or other proteins such as quorn or tofu, so that they soak up the flavours.
To marinate is to soak such items in such a mixture.
But wait: what’s this? The dictionary also has a verb, to marinade, which means … to marinade.
So you can marinate or marinade your slab of tofu or your fish, but you can only soak them in a marinade.
You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.
LibroEditing proofreading, editing, transcription, localisation 
Alison Thompson
June 10, 2013 at 10:46 am
Agh, you mean I can no longer shout “Nooooooooooooo!” at the TV next time some chef talks about marinading something??!
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Liz at Libro
June 10, 2013 at 10:47 am
Yes, indeed. You just wait till my post on “decimate” the Monday after next …!!
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Brendano
June 10, 2013 at 12:01 pm
Decimate or decimade? Maybe the decimade is the pile of dead bodies when the enemy has been decimated. 🙂
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Liz at Libro
June 11, 2013 at 6:29 am
Very good!
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Diana Rowlands
July 19, 2020 at 3:54 pm
Just found this, Liz, and it has reminded me of a favourite recipe in which the chef suggested applying a marinade to a piece of meat and leaving it in the fridge for a few hours “to cogitate”. Think on that!! 🙂
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Liz Dexter
July 19, 2020 at 3:58 pm
Ha – that is funny!
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