20 Advanced Verbs (C1/C2) to Build Your Vocabulary | TOTAL English Fluency

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to advanced  English lessons with Harry where I try to help  

you to get a better understanding of the English  language. We help you with all aspects of English,  

whether it be vocabulary, grammar,  how to prepare for job interviews,  

how to prepare for proficiency exams, whatever  it takes. We're here to help you and in this  

particular lesson today, we're looking at 20  advanced verbs that will help you particularly  

in those all important proficiency exams like  IELTS or CAE, or any type of exam like that.

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Okay, so as we said, it's an advanced English  lesson. We're taking 20 advanced verbs and  

show you how you can improve your overall  fluency by using some or hopefully all of  

these at some stage. So they are quite  advanced, they're probably not verbs  

that you have used on a regular basis.  So it might take a little bit of time,  

perhaps you might need to watch this lesson  a couple of times, practice them as always,  

you know the drill by now. And when you practice  more than you will improve more. Okay, so let's  

take them as I said, we're going go through them  one by one and give you a couple of examples.

So the first advanced verb that I have for you  is to articulate, articulate. And we'll also  

concentrate on the pronunciation for those  of these verbs that can be a bit tricky. So  

articulate and to articulate means to express  ideas or thoughts in a very clear and effective  

way. So to articulate articulate means to  give a very clear definition of something  

or to express your ideas in a very clear way.  So let's have a look at a couple of examples.  

The politician was able to articulate his  policy proposals in a way that resonated  

with voters. So it made it easy for them  to understand. So like all politicians,  

they can articulate quite well. They don't  always believe what they say, but they can  

articulate their ideas quite well. And the  second example, the professor was impressed by  

how well the student was able to articulate  her arguments in the essay in the essay,  

so the professor was impressed by how well the  student was able to articulate her ideas in the  

essay. So articulate is all about being clear  the clarity of your opinion, how you express it.

Number two, evaluate, to evaluate something, to  evaluate something means to assess the value of  

quality of something or it's worth to evaluate.  And the examples would be the manager evaluated  

the performance of each employee before  deciding who he should promote. Okay,  

so the manager evaluated the performance of  each employee, before deciding who to promote  

to evaluate them to assess what each employee had  done, or what each employee had contributed to the  

business in the previous period, six months or  12 months, whatever the assessment period was.  

And the second example, the reviewer evaluated  the book, based on its content, writing style  

and overall impact, so the reviewer or the critic,  so the critic was providing a critique of a book  

and he evaluated or she evaluated the book based  on its content, writing style and overall impact.

Number three to reconcile, reconcile. And  when we reconcile it means to find a way  

to bring two conflicting ideas or people who  are have conflicting opinions to agreement,  

okay? So to reconcile to find a way to bring two  conflicting ideas or beliefs into an agreement and  

it could be people who have a conflicting idea,  and we try to reconcile that more perhaps it's  

just simply parents who've fallen out with the  children, we tried to bring about reconciliation  

to reconcile them. So the example one, the  mediator helped the two parties reconcile the  

differences and reach a settlement in the divorce.  Okay, so the mediator helped the two parties  

reconcile the differences and reach a settlement  or an acceptable settlement in the divorce.  

And the second example, the student had to  reconcile conflicting information in order  

to write an accurate research paper so the student  had to reconcile conflicting information in order  

to write an accurate research paper to reconcile  to bring about some agreement or understanding.

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Verb number four, conjecture. conjecture, okay.  So make sure you get the correct pronunciation  

conjecture. And conjecture is to make an educated  guess, or hypothesis about something based on  

incomplete information. So where you don't have  the full information, sometimes you have to make  

an educated guess. And this can be conjecture. So  this is something that is not necessarily factual,  

but you're drawing certain conclusions from the  information you have, and certain conclusions  

based on the information that perhaps you  don't have. Okay. And the first example of  

conjecture is, the scientist conjectured  that there might be life on other planets  

based on the discovery of water on Mars. So they  conjectured that so they believed or they came  

to the understanding that there might be so it's  not absolutely definitive that there might be  

life on other planets based on the fact that  they found evidence of water on planet Mars.  

And the second example, the journalist  conjectured that the company was hiding  

something based on their lack of transparency.  So when the company weren't prepared to answer  

questions, or the information they gave  was a little bit veiled or in secrecy,  

then based on that lack of transparency, the  journalist conjectures that the company had  

indeed something to hide, or were trying to  hide something. Okay. So that's number four.

Number five, to elaborate. Okay, so when we  elaborate, we expand on an idea or a topic,  

okay, so it means to provide more detail or more  detailed evidence or explanation on a particular  

topic. So you'd often be asked, Could you  elaborate on that please means Could you  

expand? Could you give more information? So the  examples, the author used examples to elaborate  

on the main theme of his book? Okay, so the author  used examples to elaborate on the main theme of  

his book to expand to give more information. And  the second example of elaborate the teacher asked  

the students to elaborate on her answer to  the question to ensure she fully or they fully  

understood the concept. Okay, so the teacher asked  the student to elaborate on her answer or their  

answer to the question to ensure she or they fully  understood the concept. So to elaborate means to  

expand, give more information, give more examples,  more clear understanding of what you have said  

so that you understand it and the teacher or  whoever is assessing, you can understand very,  

very clearly what you mean. So to elaborate on  something, somebody might just simply use the  

expression. Would you kind to elaborate? So  would you would you would you be so kind as  

to elaborate, or would you be would you like to  elaborate in some way, okay, or kindly elaborate  

on the point that you're making. So please give us  some more detail more information, to elaborate.

Number six to infer, to infer something, okay.  So to draw a conclusion based on evidence or  

reasoning, so when you infer you draw a conclusion  based on evidence or reasoning. For example,  

the reader inferred the character's  motives from their action. In the story,  

the reader inferred the character's  actions or motives from the actions  

in the story. So to infer something means to  draw a conclusion, what are you inferring?  

Might be a question somebody will ask you,  meaning, what conclusions have you drawn? Or  

what decisions have you made? Or why are  you saying that what are you inferring,  

you've got obviously something you would like  to express and the second example, the scientist  

inferred the presence of a new planet based on  its gravitational effects on nearby stars. So,  

some examination of the stars in the galaxy,  and the gravitational effects suggested that  

there was another planet close by so the scientist  inferred that there was another planet somewhere  

in the location or the locality of the stars based  on some examination of the effects of gravity  

on those particular star so they inferred that  they weren't, they weren't saying categorically  

but they were inferring that there was the  possibility of another planet being there, okay.

Number seven. Now, this is a difficult word  

to pronounce. So just be very careful  with it, extrapolate, to extrapolate.  

And when we extrapolate, we make predictions or  we make estimates based on known information. So  

we have information and based on that information,  we make some predictions. So we extrapolate Okay,  

so we take the information, and we suggest  or predict what is going to happen.  

For example, the economist extrapolated future  growth rates in the economy based on past trends.  

So this is typical of what an economist might  do, they take some past trends, they look at the  

numbers, their figures and then they extrapolate  based on that. So the economist extrapolated  

future growth in the economy based on past events  or trends, okay. So they extrapolate the good  

information, and then they use that to make a  prediction to predict what will happen. And the  

second example and again he is very important when  they do extrapolate is when the tournament weather  

forecasting, so the climatologist extrapolated  future temperature trends based on current data.  

So they looked at data that they had gathered  for 510 15 years and the changes in the climate  

and the temperature. And these climatologist  are meteorologists, then extrapolated future  

temperature trends based on that particular data.  So to extrapolate. Practice, extrapolate means  

predicting, or estimating what's going to happen  based on data that you have, to extrapolate.

Number eight, again, slightly difficult to  pronounce, again, another verb to elicit, elicit,  

okay, so when we elicit, we draw out a response  or we get information or reaction from someone so  

by asking certain questions, we get information  or answers. So we elicit the information or the  

response that we are looking for. The psychologist  tried to elicit the patient's feelings by asking  

about their childhood experiences. So if the  psychologist was trying to get to the bottom of a  

psychological problem that the patient was having,  they have a way in which they would try to elicit  

that information by asking searching questions, in  this case about the patient's childhood them so to  

elicit their reaction to see how they react and  to try and identify the particular problems that  

they're having to elicit. And the second example,  the teacher used thought provoking - be careful  

of pronunciation thought provoking questions to  elicit insightful answers from her students. So  

she asked very searching questions as we said  here thought provoking questions to elicit  

insightful deep and detailed answers or responses  from her students. So to elicit Okay, good.

Now, as I said, these are all advanced  verbs, so I'm sure many of them you're  

hearing them for the first time. So try and  practice try and understand the samples that  

I'm giving you in the examples and try  to see how you can work them out. Okay.

Number nine, augment to augment something. Okay.  When we augment something, we make it greater  

by adding to it, okay, so we increase it or we  enhance it to augment. So somebody can augment  

their monthly salary by doing some overtime,  they could augment their income by taking a  

second job. So students often, you know, augment  their perhaps pocket money or allowance that the  

parents give them by taking a job in a restaurant  or a bar to augment their income to give them some  

additional spending capacity. So that's to augment  to make something greater by adding to it my case,  

so to to enhance or to increase. So the examples,  the company decided to augment their workforce  

by hire hiring more skilled workers or more  skilled employees, the company decided to augment  

their workforce by hiring more skilled employees  or workers. And the second example, the author,  

augmented her book with additional chapters to  address the latest developments in the field.  

So if somebody was doing some research, and they  had produced a book, but they wanted to update it,  

so the augmented or added extra chapters  based on some additional information,  

or research in that particular field, so to  augment the information in the book, okay.

And then number 10, exacerbate. okay, again, a  difficult word to pronounce. So be very careful,  

it sounds like extrapolate what we had  before extrapolate. And this is exacerbate,  

exacerbate to try to get the pronunciation  correct, exacerbate. When we exacerbate something,  

we make a problem or situation worse,  or even more severe. So two exacerbate  

the heavy rainfall exacerbated the flooding  in the low lying area. So perhaps those areas  

were susceptible to flooding. And the heavy rains  that they had received in the previous few days,  

exacerbated the situation meant that the flood  was even greater than it had previously been so  

exacerbated the situation. Or the second  example, his lack of sleep only served  

to exacerbate his feeling of anxiety before the  exam. So before every exam, children or people,  

whoever doing - of course, children are people  as well - but children and adults before an exam,  

they get a feeling of anxiety and if you don't  get enough sleep, then that lack of sleep will  

exacerbate that feeling of anxiety, anxiety. So  it gets worse, okay? So to exacerbate something,  

is to make the situate a situation  worse, or even more severe exacerbate.

Okay, so this is quite a long lesson. So  hopefully you're listening attentively and you can  

understand what I'm saying but you know, they are  difficult verbs and you might need to look them  

a couple of times. So we're on to number 11. And  number 11 is ameliorate ameliorate. Okay, so when  

we make when we ameliorate something, it's to make  a situation or a problem better, okay, so, or more  

tolerable? Okay, so to ameliorate the situation  to make it better, or at least, more tolerable.  

For example, the new healthcare initiative aimed  to ameliorate the living conditions of the less  

fortunate so they introduced some changes to  the social welfare or healthcare system so that  

those on low incomes would benefit so the new  health care initiative aimed to ameliorate the  

living conditions of less fortunate to make  them better off or and prove their living  

conditions or their standard of living.  On the second example, regular exercise  

and a healthy diet can ameliorate the symptoms of  depression. Okay, so if you're feeling depressed,  

try some more exercise or healthy regime and diet.  And that will ameliorate it won't, of course,  

cure all the problems, but it might make it  seem or appear a little easier to ameliorate.

Number 12 innovate, to innovate, and to innovate  means to introduce new ideas, new concepts, new  

methods or products, to create or to do something  in a better or different way to innovate.  

The company aims to innovate by developing  cutting edge technology in the renewable  

energy sector. So the company aims to  innovate or to be innovative. You want to  

use it as an adjective by developing cutting edge  technology in the renewable energy sector. So to  

innovate. The artists decided to innovate by using  unconventional materials in his sculpture. So  

perhaps most sculptors and artists use plastic or  concrete or marble or plaster whatever they use,  

but this particular artist decided to innovate  by using waste material or fungus. I saw an  

article recently where an artist used fungus  that grew in a house, and they use this to  

create his art for his sculptures. Okay, so to be  innovative, or to innovate and to be innovative,  

then it's using that as an adjective  of gods. And to innovate is the verb.

Number 13. This is an old fashioned verb to  garner, okay. And it's, it's quite formal  

to garner and to garner means to gather or to  collect or accumulate information to garner to  

collect accumulate information, the researcher  garnered data from multiple sources to support  

her thesis. So the researcher garnered collected  data from multiple sources to support her thesis.  

So when you garner something, you collect,  you gather information data, in this case,  

to support a particular idea, or thesis. And  the second example, the presidential candidate,  

garnered widespread support for his progressive  politics. Okay, so if somebody was running in the  

presidential race for the first time, and they  wanted to get a lot of support from the people,  

so to garner that support to collect or to  gather that support, they used different ideas,  

more progressive policies, and this garnered  widespread support. Okay, and that's number 13.

And number 14, to bolster. To bolster means to  strengthen to support someone or something. So  

you can bolster a wall by putting in some concrete  or some supports, so that will bolster so make it  

stronger. Or if you want to bolster as we had  in the previous example, to garner support,  

if you want to bolster to strengthen your support,  you have a lot of giveaway ideas in your policies.  

Okay, so let me give you the examples. The  managers took steps to bolster employees  

morale by implementing more flexible working  hours. So during the COVID situation, people  

were allowed to work remotely and they still can.  And what this did was to bolster employees morale  

or make them feel better by implementing certain  changes in practices in their working habits or  

working hours. Or the football manager decided  to bolster his defence by signing two experienced  

defenders so that his team could stop leaking  or letting in so many goals. So the football  

manager decided to bolster his defence by signing  to senior experienced players that will help them  

to survive the drop also, so they wouldn't  be relegated. And then the other example I  

have the government's infrastructure investments,  bolstered the company's or the country's economic  

growth. So the government's infrastructure  investments bolstered the country's economic  

growth, so a little bit more formal in that  particular example. And that's the word bolster.

So number 15, abate. And when we abate, to abate  means to reduce something and then the amount or  

the degree or the intensity, okay. For example,  the weather or the thunder, the rain can abate  

meaning it can reduce and it's not as heavy  as it was the day before the winds can abate.  

So they might have been blowing at 150 kilometres  an hour and they dropped to 90 kilometres an hour  

still very strong, but they abated overnight.  Okay, so to abate. Let me give you the example,  

as the storm abated, so as the storm reduced as  the storm abated, the rescue team were finally  

able to reach the stranded hiker so as the the  storm abated or as the wind and the rain reduced,  

the rescue team were then in a position that they  were able to search and rich the stranded hikers.  

And the second example, the central banks measures  helped abate inflation and stabilise the economy.  

So the measures introduced by the central bank  helped to abate the impact of inflation and  

stabilise the economy. So, to abate means to  reduce in amount or degree certain situations.

And number 16 And to concur to concur. So it's not  conquer. That's a very different word to concur.  

So the it's a C sound, concur. And when we concur,  we agree, or we are in harmony with somebody else  

about opinions or views, okay, so we can concur  on our uncertain views, opinions, actions,  

whatever we wish to take. Okay. For example, the  expert panel concurred with the findings of the  

research study. The expert panel concurred on the  findings of the research study. So perhaps there  

was some leak in the water system. And there was  some research and they weren't sure, but when the  

experts looked at the information, the data they  concurred as to how the leak had happened or had  

come about, and of course, they also concurred on  the actions that it should take to fix whatever  

the problem happened to be concur. On the second  example, after lengthy discussions, the committee  

members concurred on the proposed budget,  so perhaps they're having difficulty passing  

the budget for the tennis club, or whatever  committee it was, but after lengthy discussions  

that committee members finally concurred on the  proposed budget, so they finally got agreement  

with each other as to what they should do and  how they would spend the money, to concur.

Number 17 exemplify. Again, be  careful with the pronunciation here,  

to exemplify. And when we use exemplify  means to serve as a typical example  

of something Okay, or to illustrate something by  giving further examples to exemplify. Okay, the  

teacher used a simple experiment to exemplify the  scientific principle. Okay, so the teacher used a  

simple experiment to exemplify the scientific  experiment, or the scientific principle.  

And the second example, the dedicated volunteers  actions that exemplified the spirit of community  

service, okay, so the volunteers in the  community worked all hours, day and night,  

if somebody was stuck on the mountain side,  they would rescue them. If somebody was stuck  

on the ocean and the waves, they would  go out and they would rescue them. Okay,  

so this dedicated volunteers team or this team  of volunteers, their actions, exemplified that  

communities and the spirit of community service.  So this community attracted a lot of people come  

into them for holidays. Unfortunately, from  time to time, people got stuck on the side of  

mountains when they were ill prepared for  that, or the went out in a boat, and then  

the storms came and they got stuck in the high  seas, or somebody had to rescue them. So this,  

these actions by this dedicated team exemplified  the spirit of community service. So they were very  

keen to make sure that everybody who visited that  community was safe and sound. So to exemplify.

Number 18 embellish, to embellish something.  Well, when we embellish a story, we make the  

story or the description, more interesting, we  certainly make it bigger. And we do this by adding  

more details, some of it might not be actually  truthful. So a lot of people will be accused  

of embellishing the stories just for effect. So it  might not actually be correct. Grandfather telling  

the story from 50-60 years ago, he might embellish  the story from time to time to make it sound more  

interesting for the grandchildren. So let me give  you my examples. First example. The tour guide,  

embellish the story of the haunted house to  entertain the visitors. So here at the perfect  

example. So perhaps the house was haunted, or  perhaps it wasn't, but for the visitors, he  

needed to make it sound good. It'll help him in in  terms of getting some nice tips. So he embellished  

the story about ghosts or sounds rattling have  changed. Oh, the noises you'd hear on certain  

nights. Okay, so to embellish the story. And the  second example, the artist embellished his life's  

story to impress his audience. So perhaps he said  he learned how to paint in this gallery or with  

this particular painter, and perhaps he it was a  little bit on true, but he used this information  

to embellish his story to build up his reputation  in order to impress his audience, to embellish.

Number 19 persevere, number 19 persevere and it's  a good verb to use at this stage because you've  

persevered through all of these explanations. And  that's exactly what persevere means. Persevere  

means to continue. On a certain course of action,  even in the face of difficulty, even in the face  

of problems with little or no prospect of success,  so you persevere that means you stick to it,  

you continue to do it, even though you may not  be successful, persevere. Let me give you the  

examples. First of all, despite the numerous  challenges she faced, Jane persevered with her  

research project. So she had her heart set on  completing research on this particular project,  

and met with many, many difficulties trying to  get information. So despite all of those problems,  

and shortcomings, and failures, nevertheless,  she persevered and finally completed her research  

project. So to persevere is to stick at it yet  really get it finished. And the second example,  

the athlete, persevered through the pain barrier,  and eventually completed the marathon. So is a  

really good example of any of you have tried to  run a marathon, and you hit that proverbial wall  

at 35, or whatever a number of kilometres, you'll  know what I'm talking about. So in this case,  

the athlete persevered through the pain barrier  pains and her carves pains in her thighs, hips.  

Anyway, you can have a pain, she had the pain, and  eventually completed the marathon to persevere.

And then finally, finally, finally, number 20.  We're at the end, number 20. Mitigate, okay,  

mitigate. And to mitigate this to make something  less severe, less serious or less painful to  

mitigate, the government implemented new policies  to mitigate the effects of climate change. So  

these new policies have tried to help us where  we are having colder winters, warmer summers,  

heavier rainfall, so the government implemented  new policies to mitigate to reduce the impact  

of climate change. And the second example,  the company took steps to mitigate the risks  

associated with the project, they took steps to  mitigate the risk. So yeah, they wanted to go  

ahead with the project. But they also recognised  that there were certain risks attaching to  

that. So they made some changes to mitigate  those risks, so they would not be so severe.

Okay, so you've got 20, yeah total  20 verbs, advanced verbs that you  

probably haven't heard before. And  I've given you two examples. And each,  

so you've got 20 times to 40 particular examples  of how you can use those particular verbs.

And as I said at the beginning, if you want  to contact me, you need more information,  

more examples, and please write to me, I'm  very happy to hear from you. I'm very happy  

to help you if you need any further help. And  if you have enjoyed this particular lesson,  

then please like the video below, and if you  can subscribe to the channel because it really,  

really helps on there are 1000s of you literally  1000s of you who are subscribing to the channel,  

and I really, really appreciate it. Okay, so this  is Harry, thanking you for watching, thanking  

you for persevering with this particular lesson.  And remember, join me again for the next lesson.