Fragen über die Beispielsätze mit, und die Definition und Benutzung von "Cumulate"

A: cumulate is never used

A: I don't think the word 'cumulate' is used very often. My dictionary defines it as: "to sum it all, to gather in a heap or accumulate." For 'accumulate' it says: "to pile up, collect, or gather together, especially over a period of time." So they are pretty much synonymous but 'accumulate' has the connotation of happening over a period of time.

'Cumulative' is defined as: 1. increasing effect, size, quantity, etc. by successive additions; accumulate [cumulative interest is interest that is added to the principle and draws additional interest] 2. in law: designating additional evidence that give support to previous evidence.

The the definition for 'accumulative' is: 1. resulting from accumulation; cumulative 2. tending to accumulate 3. acquisitive.

So again they mean the same thing in many cases but 'accumulative' has the connotation of acquisitiveness and 'cumulative' is usually used to refer to effects.

For example:

We live in an accumulative society.

Learning is a cumulative process.


Also I think many people often mistake "accumulative" with "a cumulative" because they sound alike.

A: In both of those sentences "accumulate" is correct.
"Cumulate" might also be correct but it's not really a commonly-used word. I don't think a native English speaker would ever use cumulate in those contexts
Related words like cumulative are more common but I never hear people use the word cumulate in everyday speech.