Essential Vocabulary and Phrases for Everyday English

Essential English Vocabulary and Phrases

Common Phrasal Verbs

• Stay on: To continue in a place, position, or situation.
• Save up: To accumulate money for future use.
• Look up: To search for something on the internet or in a book.
• Look up to: To admire someone or something.

Money and Education

• Earning money: Getting money for work that you do.
• Allowance: An amount of money given regularly.
• Changed my mind: Had a change of opinion.
• Encourage: To inspire or motivate.
• Skip: To avoid going to; to miss.
• Immediately: Straight away.
• Career: A chosen pursuit; a profession or occupation.
• Degree: An academic title conferred by universities and colleges upon completion of studies, or as an honorary recognition of achievement.
• A-level: Exams which students in England and Wales take at the age of 18.
• Sixth-form college: A place where students aged between 16 and 18 study after they have left school.

Study Verbs and Phrases

• Make a difference: A significant change or progress in a situation.
• Make an effort: To do something even though you need extra energy.
• Make notes: To write down what the teacher says.
• Make progress: Movement toward a goal; advance.
• Do roleplays: To participate in something in a specific way.
• Write down: To make a note of something; to record something in writing.
• Read aloud: To read with voice.

Memory and Organization

• Remember: To retain in the memory.
• Recall: To remember; to recollect.
• Record: Information or data on a particular subject, collected and preserved.
• Appointments: An arrangement to do something or meet someone at a particular time and place.
• Diary: A daily record, especially a personal record of events, experiences, and observations; a journal.
• Memorize: To learn by heart.
• Memory: The act or an instance of remembering; recollection.
• Calendar: A system for organizing time.
• Remind: To cause to remember; to put in mind.
• Forget: To be unable to remember something.
• Carry out: To perform or complete a task.
• Let down: To disappoint someone.
• Sort out: To organize or tidy something.
• Work out: To solve a problem.
• Success: The favorable outcome of something.
• Essential: Absolutely necessary.
• Personal journal: Notebooks containing private thoughts.
• Gadgets: Small, useful inventions.
• Store: Put in a place for later use.
• Ability/Efficient: Able to do something quickly and well.
• Make the most of: Use or enjoy something as much as possible.

Idioms and Expressions

• Bright red: To blush.
• Over the moon: Extremely pleased and happy.
• Couldn't believe her eyes: To be very surprised by something.
• Burst into tears: To begin to cry suddenly.
• Scared stiff: Absolutely terrified.

Environmental Vocabulary

• To be green: To take special steps to protect the environment.
• Waste: To use something inefficiently.
• Reuse: To use again.
• Recycle: To put or pass through a cycle again, as for further treatment.
• Bottle bank: A container for glass recycling.
• Throw away: To get rid of something as useless.
• Dump: A place where rubbish is discarded.
• Packaging: The box or wrapping in which a product is offered for sale.
• Get rid of: To throw away.
• Put up with: To tolerate.
• Come up with: To create or invent.
• Break down: To decompose.
• Cut down (on): To reduce.
• Carrier bag: A shopping bag, usually made of plastic.
• To raise: Make people aware of something.
• Stink: A bad smell.
• Shelters: Structures built for protection.
• Manufacturer: A company that makes goods in a factory.
• Can: A metal container for food or drink.

Extreme Adjectives

Examples of extreme adjectives:

• Surprised: amazed, astonished
• Pleased/Glad: thrilled, delighted
• Scared/Frightened: terrified
• Angry/Cross: furious
• Sad: devastated, miserable
• Tired: exhausted