Key English Vocabulary, Grammar, and Expressions

Essential English Vocabulary

Here's a compilation of useful English words and their meanings, categorized for easier learning:

Common Verbs and Adjectives

• Over: Finished
• Complain: Say that you aren't satisfied
• Jumpers: Sweaters
• Down: Sad
• Fades: Become less bright
• Rise: Get up
• Sight: View
• Costumes: Clothes
• Tend: Are more likely
• Flicker: Move quickly
• Amazing: Wonderful
• Displays: Shows
• Dishes: Foods
• Such as: For example
• Truly: Really
• Join in: Do an activity with others
• Turn up: Arrive
• Share out: Divide
• Wet: Humid
• Cross: Angry
• Tough: Hard
• As: Because
• Harbour: Place on the coast...
• Loads: Many
• Scruffy: Dirty
• Crowded: Full
• Perform: Entertain an audience
• Stage: Platform
• Sightseeing: Visiting places
• Soak up: (British) Absorb
• Claim: Say that something is true
• Appeal: Be attractive
• Cater: Provide
• Barely: Hardly
• While: Period of time
• Make out: Understand
• Joined: Became a member
• Pitch: Field
• Caught up with: Got to know
• Homesick: Unhappy (missing home)
• Worrying: That makes you feel anxious
• Came across: Met
• Mud-skipper: Kind of fish
• Fins: Parts of the body
• Unbelievably: Incredibly
• Instead: In the place of
• Outgoing: Not reserved or shy
• Enough: As much as necessary
• Manage: Could/Couldn't
• Reached: Got to
• Achieved: Succeeded in...
• Disappointing: Not as good...
• Melt away: Disappear
• Bustling: Crowded
• Landlord: The owner...
• Backgrounds: Origins
• Wedding: Marriage
• Mixture: Combination
• Pick up: Choose
• Runs: Manages
• Gain: Win
• Taste: Have flavor
• Attempt: On her first...
• Disgust: Feeling...and pity
• Argument: Liberman's...
• Apply for: ...a place as a
• Gruesome: Amongst other...tasks
• Swallow: About...them
• Contestant: ,...have a number of them.
• Crawl over: Let rats...them
• Came at a price: Involved something difficult...
• Think twice: Consider very carefully
• Light at the end of the tunnel: Promise of better things after a difficult time
• The end justifies the means: You can do anything, good or bad, to get a good result
• Open doors for her: Give her opportunities

Make vs. Do

Use make for creating or constructing something, and do for actions, activities, and work.

• Make: an effort, plans, friends, a decision, a mistake, a noise.
• Do: exercise, well, somebody a favor, the shopping, your best, your homework.

Modal Verbs and Tenses

Modal Verbs

• Ability: can, could, be able to
• Advice: should, ought to
• Necessity: need to, needn't
• Obligation: must, have to
• Prohibition: mustn't
• Lack of obligation: I don't have to come...

Deduction

• Must (when it is true)
• Can't (when it is impossible)
• Might, may, could (when it is possible)

Time Clauses

• After + Past Perfect, Past Simple
• Before + Past Simple, Past Perfect