Improve your Vocabulary: 17 Advanced Verbs

I've got 17 excellent verbs for you today that you are going to get the meaning of,

and you're going to be able to start using these verbs.

You know, they're very useful, and by using more advanced verbs, your writing and your

speech will improve.

We're going to learn how to use these verbs here by applying them to this noun, "relations".

Before we start doing that, I need you to understand the difference between "relations"

and "relationships".

We use the word "relations" in a formal context.

For example, the "relations between two countries", whereas "relationships" describes the connection

between different people and is more informal.

So, what I want you to do is have a look at this list of verbs here and decide whether

when applied to the word "relations", whether it's saying it's going well or it's going

badly.

Yeah?

Does this...

If we cement "relations", are they getting worse or better?

I'll demonstrate with the first one, and then I want you guys to have a go at doing this

at home.

Okay?

With your grumpy face and your smiley faces, you're actually going to write this down on

a piece of paper.

You're going to be active learners today.

Okay.

So, "cement".

What is "cement"?

Well, "cement" is that, you know, you get those trucks and it does all that sort of

mixing with that grey, like, strong stuff that then comes out, and it makes things stick

together.

So, if I'm cementing "relations", yep, I'm making them stronger.

So, this one, we're going to have a smiley face.

"Cut off", what do you think?

Does that sound positive or negative?

The "cut off relations".

Here we've got China, here we've got USA, "cutting off the relations", yep.

You might think that's a good thing, but actually it's, generally speaking, negative.

Okay?

"To cut something off".

"Damage relations", what does "damage" mean?

I'm staying in my friend's flat and I damage his fridge, yep.

If I damage his fridge, yep.

Let's think about this.

"Damaging relations", is it going to be negative or positive?

Yep.

Good.

It's negative.

If I damage something, I'm causing harm, I'm making a problem to it.

If you damage relations, then here they are, and then it gets worse.

"To develop", meaning to build, yep, to build upon, to grow, to progress.

What do you reckon?

Yep.

Good.

Okay, so "to develop relations", meaning you're kind of encouraging them and they're blossoming.

"Disrupt".

What do you think?

Yeah.

Good.

It's a negative one.

So here are our relations, and we're going, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You can't talk with them, like, enough of that, yep, I'm disrupting it, I'm stopping

it for a while."

"Encourage", good, positive.

I'm like, "Yes, you speak with them, you can do this, you can do that, I'm showing my support,

I'm showing my positive approval, and I'm helping it to, you know, come to fruition."

"Establish relations".

What does "establish" mean?

"Establish" really means to start, yep, to find a foundation, yep.

So again, it's positive.

It's a positive action.

"Foster", that's a difficult word.

Any idea what it means?

We talk about fostering going together with adoption.

So we have two children that haven't been able to be cared for by their birth parents,

and they go and join another family, and they foster those children, so they're helping

them to grow up.

It's positive.

If we foster relations between two countries, then a little...

It's very similar to "encourage", we're helping them to grow.

Over here, okay?

Keep concentrating.

I know these words are...

Some of them are difficult, but you learn by, you know, expanding your vocab, not just

by using the same words all the time.

"Improve relations".

Positive, improve, yep.

Not the hardest one to help it go better, but this is difficult.

"Jeopardize".

So we have... the noun is "jeopardy".

So "jeopardy" means danger.

So if you jeopardize, you are putting into danger.

To jeopardize relations, it's negative, yep, you know, they're in a dodgy place, like can

they survive?

"Maintain", to maintain, positive, negative, sounds more positive, yep.

If you maintain something, then you keep it going.

In the UK, we talk about "maintained schools".

Those are schools that receive government funding as their main economic source.

So, to maintain, it means, like, you keep it, you sustain it.

"Promote".

Thinking about, like, a boxing promoter.

The promoter is saying, "This is going to be an amazing fight, we've got this guy, we've

got this guy, it's going to be, like, the greatest fight in the world."

Yep, it's talking, it's kind of advertising, it's marketing.

If you promote relations, you know, encouraging, yep.

Saying why it's going to be a good thing to have relations between these two countries.

"Restore".

This is a very widely used verb, can be used for all sorts of things, computers, relationship

with God, relations with countries, relationships with people.

Okay, so what does it mean?

It means to kind of, to reset.

If we restore something, maybe we've got an old piece of furniture and it's looking awful

because it's been, like, thrown around and it's got chips everywhere.

If you restore it, you put love into it and you make it look like it used to look.

To restore relations means they were here, they went bad, but now you're helping them

again.

"Resume".

This is not a resume, yep, this is a verb, okay?

If I was talking about a curriculum vitae, it should really have an accent, but...

To resume.

I think Jill has made a video all about cricket, so in cricket it's sometimes played in England

where it rains.

The rain is not red, it's meant to be blue.

Now, if we're playing a game of cricket and everyone has to sort of stop because of the

rain, we're talking about the game resuming at 3 o'clock, so it means to start again.

To resume relations with, yep, rather than going bad, it just means they stopped.

Yep, we're doing this, we stop, we carry on again.

"Sever", that's quite a sort of violent sounding verb with the sort of "s" and the "v", isn't

it?

Sever.

If you sever your kind of artery in your arm, then blood's going...

To sever means, like, to tear apart, you've got the ax, and...

So probably more on this side, right?

To sever relations means to destroy them, to force them apart.

Sour, positive or negative?

Yep, more on this side.

We talk about lemons being sour, it's that sort of very bitter taste, but if you sour,

it's an active verb, you're doing something to make the relations worse.

Okay, quite the opposite of this word, "strengthen", to make strong.

Right, let's test you on these.

I'm going to write all of these verbs up here, and you're going to try and put them into

the correct sentence.

So in the box up here, we have the verbs that we have been working on.

What I want you to do is I want you to spend 30 seconds looking at them, and you're going

to try and remember as many as you can, and then you're going to pause the video and you're

going to write them all down, the ones that you can remember.

Okay?

So, 30 seconds starts now on my imaginary watch.

Right, write them down.

Write them down.

You've got 10 seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

How many did you get?

Have a look.

Look at the ones that are least familiar.

The ones you probably could write down, you probably use already.

Did you have "jeopardize" in your list?

Did you have "sever"?

Did you have "sour"?

Did you have "disrupt"?

Did you have "cement"?

These are the higher level words that if you're doing something like an IELTS test and you

use them, you'll get credited for using better vocabulary.

Okay.

Here, we've got six sentences, and together we're going to work out one of these verbs

that could fit in here.

First sentence, "We had no option but to _____ relations with."

We had no option, we had no choice, so that's not a good thing, having no choice, so it's

got to be some sort of negative verb.

We had no option but to something relations, something we don't really want to do, a negative

that we don't want to do, so let's just remind ourselves.

That is positive, to cut off, negative, damage, negative, develop, positive, disrupt, negative,

encourage, positive, establish, positive, foster, positive, improve, positive, jeopardize,

maintain, promote is positive, restore, positive, resume, positive, sever, negative, sour, negative,

so we're looking for a negative one.

"We had no option but to _____ relations with", damage doesn't really work here, because why

would you sort of damage something?

You wouldn't decide to damage it, but you might decide to stop it, so cut off could

work there.

Again, this is a bit like damage, you wouldn't choose to disrupt, but you might choose to

sever, again, meaning to stop, so I would say sever or cut off could work here.

The leaked memo, now what does this mean?

If there is a water pipe that has a leak, it goes drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

A memo is like short for memorandum, it means some information.

Now, if some information is leaked, it means the public, the press, find out some information

they shouldn't know about.

The leaked memo, is this a good thing or a bad thing happening?

It's a bad, yeah?

The leaked memo, _____ relations with, so this isn't something we decide to do, therefore

damage could work.

We're looking for a negative, I think this one is probably the best, because it's something

passive happening, damaged, past participle.

Breakfast club, sounds good, what are we having?

Breakfast club, relations amongst the staff.

I'm sensing something happy happening here, so we're looking for a happy word, developed,

not really, it's not a sort of happy thing, it's just a good thing, improved maybe, strengthened

maybe, restored maybe, because they're doing something together, they're having their coffee

and their croissants, whatever they are having for breakfast together, and it's making that

unit stronger.

Or maybe encouraged, I think this could work quite well there, encouraging relations, normally

these people don't talk to each other, they just sit there doing their jobs, but because

they have to go and have breakfast together, they're encouraged to talk to each other,

to form relationships or relations, so I'm going to put encouraged, again, past simple.

The stupidity and insensitivity of has something relations with.

The stupidity and stupidity, this is something negative, something bad happening, so we need

to look for a negative word.

What have we already used?

We've already used sever, we've already used damaged, and we've used encouraged.

Let's find another negative.

Insensitivity has cut off, no, because again, it's something passive, they haven't decided

to do it, jeopardized, to be put in danger.

The stupidity and insensitivity has jeopardized, to put at risk, my pen has gone multicolored.

Right, next sentence.

The latest scandal has, so scandal is something kind of shocking happening, again, it's something

bad.

Right, so we're looking for a bad one, sour.

The latest scandal has soured, yep, made everything taste bad.

This thing happened and now, oh, just this whole relation between this and this just

doesn't taste good anymore, soured.

The black has soured my red pen, look, it's feeling all sort of bitter that it's got black

in it.

We are confident, I'm doing some strange bends around there, are you doing any strange bends

back there at home?

Should we do some bends together?

Good to kind of keep moving, keep concentrating, okay, good, we're nearly there, guys.

We are confident, yes we are, that this trade deal, yeah, positive sounds like, yeah, let's

do this.

We're confident that this trade deal will, will what?

Well, it's going to do something good, strengthen, maintain kind of means keep the same, it's

doing more than that, it's getting better, so no, not this one, maybe, develop, possibly,

cement, yeah, that sounds quite nice and strong, what do you prefer, strengthen or cement?

Yeah, yeah, so we've got like a million people going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, let's

pick you, yeah, cement, okay.

I'd like you to cement your learning to see what I'm doing there, yeah, pun, by doing

a little bit more of a quiz on your own at home, see if you can get full marks.

If you do, keep yourself a pass on the back, if you don't, try harder next time.

And if you want a little bit more help with your English, my website is called honeyourenglish.com

or honey, our English, we need help, talk to me, I might be able to help you, otherwise

I'll see you in the next video, until then, adios.