advise:  to give advice
My doctor advised me to drink more water.
Go talk to Dad.  Maybe he can advise you about what to do.

arrange:  to make a plan and do it
I can arrange to have flowers delivered, if you like.
She arranged to meet him at the coffee shop across from the library.

communicate:  to talk to, text or email (someone)
We communicate every week by email.
My ex-girlfriend and I don’t communicate at all.

delay:  to do at a later time
They decided to delay the wedding for two months.
Traffic was delayed for an hour due to an accident.

explain:  to make (something) understandable
He had to explain why he was late again.
Can you explain to me how I can fix this.

handle:  to manage, be responsible for
Even when life gets hard, I can handle it.
I wanted to see if you could handle that problem.

include:  to make part of the group.
Don’t forget to include your email address on the form.
This is the first time he’s included me on his team.

measure:  to find out exactly how long, wide or high something is
You can’t measure my love for you.
Before we buy the paint, we should measure the living room.

order:  to tell (someone) what to do
The police have ordered everyone out of the building.
The doctor ordered her to stay in bed for a week.

pretend:  to act in a certain way even though it’s not truthful.
The children pretended to be asleep.
Although her heart was broken, she pretended to be alright.

reduce:  to make less
We must all do our part to reduce the pollution in this city.
All the prices in the store were reduced by 40%.

ruin:  to make unusable or unworkable
He ruined the wedding cake when he knocked it over.
I ruined the surprise party by accidentally telling her yesterday.

scrape:  to remove the top layer by force
He scraped his knee playing baseball.
There’s no need to scrape the pan.  Just soak it for an hour.

stretch:  to make longer
After waking up from his nap, he stretched his body.
He stretched his arm as high as he could  and grabbed the lowest branch.

trick:  to do or say something to fool (someone)
She tricked me into believing that she wasn’t going to the party.
He tricked her into giving him her phone number.

Pronunciation Exercise: Listen and repeat the above vocabulary on the audio file below.

Use these flashcards to help you study.

When you think you’re ready, do the following exercise.