English Vocabulary building tips – Online Spoken English class assignments

Vocabulary learning exercises is a critical process acquiring building blocks in second language acquisition or simply speaking learning new words to be better able to converse in the language being learnt.

As an online English Speaking course in India, we have noticed that learners are usually exposed to a limited vocabulary. Simple exercises in vocabulary building thus are crucial for these learners to be able to communicate better.

In this blog article, we have listed down commonly used words that if replaced by their synonyms will make you come across as a well-versed English-speaking individual. Treat this as an assignment where you practice using these words as often as possible to remember them better.

Spoken English vocabulary building assignment:

Below, we have listed commonly used words with their synonyms and applications in sentence building.

Word- Synonym

Happy- Pleased, delighted, elated, joyful, cheerful, ecstatic, jubilant, gratified, glad

• Susan was ecstatic to see her new car.
• Annie is delighted about the idea.
• Martin was not exactly cheerful at the news.

Interesting- Fascinating, enthralling, engaging, attractive, titillating, tantalizing, exciting, engrossing, absorbing

• I found the new home fascinating and calm.
• Australia is a vibrant, exciting city.
• The book was absolutely enthralling.

Good- Acceptable, fabulous, fantastic, favourable, great, marvellous, splendid, stupendous, superb, superior, wonderful

• He certainly is a marvellous actor.  
• He's done a superb job on the presentation.
• He certainly is an exceptional actor.

Important- Chief, vital, crucial, essential, imperative, weighty, critical

• Police have found a crucial clue.
• His support is imperative for our project.
• Finishing homework on time is absolutely critical.

Beautiful- Attractive, breath-taking, wonderful, picturesque, glowing, gorgeous

• What an attractive name!
• A wonderful week followed.
• Childhood is a glowing time.

Brave- Courageous, fearless, dauntless, intrepid, daring, heroic, audacious.

• You have a courageous heart.
• Collie made a daring step by moving abroad.
• They lost their most audacious leader in the battle.

Bright- Shining, shiny, gleaming, sparkling, shimmering, radiant, vivid, lustrous.

• The bride looked radiant in the dress she selected.
• My best friend cheers me up with her sparkling smile.
• My daughter’s face gleams when she sees me.

Weak- Frail, feeble, shaky, flimsy, fragile

• Human happiness is so fragile.
• He was a shaky, helpless old man.
• Many old people become mentally feeble.

Dangerous- Perilous, hazardous, risky, uncertain, unsafe.

• I take a risk when I drive as I am not a confident driver.
• The building is unsafe.
• Mountaineering is hazardous for some people.

Delicious- Savoury, delectable, appetizing, luscious, scrumptious, palatable, delightful, exquisite

• You can have a scrumptious meal at our hotel.
• How we love exquisite desserts on holidays.
• Rama's savoury meal was unavoidable.

Famous- Well-known, renowned, celebrated, famed, eminent, illustrious, distinguished

• We have many eminent players in indoor sports.
• He attained an illustrious career as a doctor.
• She has earned lots of fame as an athlete.

Fast- Quick, rapid, speedy, hasty, swiftly, rapidly, quickly, speedily, hastily,

• It's difficult to understand his American accent as he speaks rapidly.
• He came to meet us hastily as he was getting late for office.
• He was out to run a quick errand.

Fat- Plump, stout, corpulent, fleshy, paunchy, elephantine

• You look a bit plump so please start diet immediately!
• My aunt is a cheerful and stout woman.
• The piano is too corpulent to fit in the front room.

Funny- Humorous, amusing, droll, comic, comical, laughable, silly

• It was a droll comedy in the show.
• The play is both comic and situational.
• The humorous remark made everyone laugh.

Serious- Alarming, grave, pressing, pressuring, severe, urgent

• Social behaviour is a matter of great urgency.
• My mom got severe when I could not clear my exam.
• The judge meted out grave penalties.

Small- Trivial, insubstantial, minimal, minor, tiny, slight

• The cat quickly jumped into the tiny boss.
• The bridge was insubstantial and would not safely carry any vehicle.
• Micky gets excited about trivial things.

New-Unique, original, unusual, latest, recent

• The original file got corrupted due to a power cut.
• His latest collection is a funny series of stories.
• My sister has a very unique style of writing.

Old- Ancient, old-fashioned, primitive, traditional, outdated, obsolete

• Primitive men lived in caves.
• My old car has fast become obsolete.
• The carpetmaker created the craft but it is a bit outdated.

False- Fraudulent, counterfeit, spurious, untrue, erroneous, deceptive, fallacious

• These were seen by authorities as very partial and untrue.
• There are many fallacious advertisements nowadays.
• Appearances can often be deceptive.

Wrong- Dubious, erroneous, fallacy, inaccurate, incorrect, miscalculated, perverse, spurious

• Her words, he said, were inaccurate and dishonest.
• The court has rejected the spurious allegation about misconduct by police.
• This has been dismissed by most writers as a fallacious storyline.

Right- Accurate, moral, proper, suitable, exact, proper

• This information can be used to make exact predictions of weather.
• The shooter's aim is extremely accurate.
• Ethics deals with moral conduct.

Easy- Effortless, facile, uncomplicated, child’s play

• The lyrics of the new song are uncomplicated.
• There is an effortlessly simple way for people to read books.
• Baking perfect cake at home is not a child’s play.

Difficult- Tough, challenging, daunting, tricky

• Being innovative can be challenging.
• You can handle tough situations if you do your practice regularly.
• The maths problem was a bit tricky for me.

Calm- Quiet, tranquil, serene, smooth, composed, peaceful,

• It is better to have peaceful and organized protests.
• I wish we could go back to the tranquil lakeside.
• Candidate needs to be composed while giving an interview.

Strong- Powerful, intense, firm, solid, potent

• We need firm rulers to bring changes.
• For a long time, a powerful local goon dominated a region.

Great- Worthy, distinguished, remarkable, grand, mighty

• She has made remarkable progress.
• Their efforts are worthy of your support.

Boring- Mundane, dull, monotonous, tiresome

• I find it very tiresome to go to the office daily by metro.
• I found the job very mundane.

Lazy- Indolent, slothful, idle, inactive, sluggish

• He is old, fat and indolent.
• Last Sunday I was feeling tired and sluggish.
• My brother is quite inactive.

Bad- Negative, inferior, incorrect, unpleasant, discouraging, terrible.

• He lost many friends due to his unpleasant attitude.
• The reviews for the films were negative.
• The plane crash news was terrible.

Big- Enormous, huge, immense, gigantic, vast, mammoth, astronomical, ample

• Children should be encouraged for enormous hard work.
• The new car has gigantic headlights which are awesome.
• The vast bridge was built to manage the transport jam.

Amazing- Astonishing, astounding, improbable, fantastic, fabulous, incredible, extraordinary

• I will tell you about my extraordinary experience with wild animals.
• I was astonished to see the rude behaviour of the teacher.
• He earned an incredible amount of money from the last project.

Awful- Dreadful, terrible, abominable, unpleasant

• The food service of the last hotel was dreadful.
• We must do something about the abominable treatment of the poor.

Angry- Mad, furious, wrathful, indignant, exasperated, aroused, inflamed, cranky

• The race was furious but short.
• I sometimes get exasperated when my son is cranky.
• In a wrathful voice she told her kids to go inside.

We recommend that you make it a practice to learn new words from sources such as Dictionary.com, Vocabulary.com, Oxford dictionary, etc. on a regular basis. Other than using them aptly, it is also important for you to ace pronouncing these words correctly. In our future articles, we will cover few basics pronunciations and enunciation rules to help you communicate effectively. Watch this space for more!

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