- Today I am going to talk to you about some
advanced verbs to help you sound smarter.
It is a super, awesome, amazing vocabulary lesson
because I'm going to teach you 10 different verbs
to help you sound smarter. And I say that they
help you sound smarter because these are more advanced
verbs, these are advanced vocabulary words
that are very specific, very precise
that you can use in certain situations
so that you can perfectly express your ideas,
thoughts and opinions and say exactly what you want to say.
These verbs are going to help you do just that.
Now I'm not only going to tell the verb and the meaning
but I'm also going to give you the pronunciation
as well as an example sentence so that you can
see how these words are used in context.
So without further ado, let's begin.
and admonish has three syllables and the stress
is on that second syllable, mon,
And this is a verb that we use with a direct object,
to admonish someone, usually for doing something wrong
because what it means is to counsel or advise
against something, it's kind of like you're scolding
somebody in a way but not because you are super
angry and they did something really terrible
but they just did something wrong and it's not correct,
- You just interrupted me again while I was admonishing
- Have you ever been admonished for doing something?
I definitely have been admonished for
The next wonderful verb is to advocate.
This word has three syllables and the stress
is on that first syllable, advocate
and to advocate means to show strong support
for something, it could be a support for a policy,
it could be support for an issue
We often use it with the preposition for,
you advocate for something when you are really
passionate about something, you really, really
really believe in it and you want
The next verb is to bemoan and this verb has two syllables
and the stress is on that second syllable, mohn, bemoan.
You may also notice that word in that second syllable,
which kind of shares a similar meaning to the verb,
to bemoan, which means you are basically expressing
that you are upset, you are distressed about something.
It's kind of like you're complaining and you might bemoan
You might bemoan someone's decision if you disagree
with it and you don't like it, you're not very happy
with something that happened and you bemoan the situation.
This word has two syllables and the stress is on that
second syllable, compel and what it means is to,
to force or drive or maybe even encourage somebody
to do something, some course of action,
to do something that you want them to do,
you really want to convince them to do something,
sometimes it can be done by force,
you compel someone to do something because maybe
you're threatening them in some way, shape or form
and you are compelling them to do what you want them to do.
- The power of Chrysler compels you.
- But you're really just trying to get somebody
to do this thing, to compel someone to do something.
The next verb is a good one, embezzle, to embezzle.
This verb has three syllables and the stress is on
that second syllable, embezzle.
Embezzle and what it means is to take money or maybe
even property but most of the time we're talking
about money and to do it in a fraudulent way.
People are creating some false records, some false receipts
and they are taking that extra money and stealing it
and they are embezzling the money.
You could embezzle money from a company,
you can embezzle money from a bank.
salesman we invented to, how do I put this,
steal from the company, embezzle.
- I just got fired from Sweetems.
- Because you were embezzling?
- Now if you do this, it's a crime so it is not
a good verb, it's not a verb that you want
The next verb is extol, to extol.
This word has two syllables and the stress
is on that second syllable, extol.
And what it means is to praise highly,
to give a lot of high praise, to someone or to something.
Often times you might extol someone during a eulogy
if there is a funeral and a person is giving a eulogy
and talking about the person that has passed away,
you want to talk about all of the good things
that this person did, you want to give them a lot of praise
and you would extol this person.
You can also use it talking about places or things,
if you really just want to speak highly of it, extol.
Next is the verb impugn, to impugn.
This word has two syllables and the stress
is on that second syllable, impugn.
And what it means is to claim that something is false,
to say that, to challenge it and say that's it's not true
and kind of cast doubt upon this situation
- So because of a few bad apples, you're gonna impugn
- A lot of times you might hear it with the word character,
to impugn someone's character.
Basically saying that this person should not be
believed, that they say things that are false,
they're dishonest and you're trying to cast doubt
over the things that this person is talking about
when you impugn someone's character.
- Mr. Chairman, if she's going to impugn his character
- It's not a good verb, it's not something that
we should try to do but this is a situation
that happens and it's a great way to describe it.
To impugn someone or something.
Another great verb, which is one
This verb has three syllables and the stress is on
that first syllable, obfuscate.
And what it means to obfuscate something
is to confuse or bewilder and just try to create
a confusing situation so that it's really difficult
to understand so you might hear it being used,
they want to obfuscate a situation, they want to obfuscate
an issue, they want to obfuscate a policy,
it happens a lot I think in politics when you're
trying to get people to believe one thing or another thing
and some people try to obfuscate certain issues.
This word has two syllables and the stress
is on that first syllable, placate.
And what it means is to appease by giving something up,
you're giving up some concession in order
to try and get something that you want,
For example, if somebody is upset with you,
you did something wrong, you will do something for this
person, you'll give something up, you are trying
to placate them in order for this person to forgive
you, to be okay with it and just to move on,
Another great verb, repudiate.
This verb has four syllables and the stress
is on that second syllable, repudiate.
And this means to reject something, to reject it
with disapproval because there's no authority
in this thing that people are trying to say or do.
To repudiate someone or you could repudiate something.
So for example at work if you are the manager
and you have employees and they make a request
and you could reject it and say no,
I don't like it, this is a terrible idea,
- Senator Eleanor, Prenses Shaw, does it bother
you at all your son repudiates so many of your
- No.
- It was refused, rejected, rebuffed, repudiated.
- It's kind of a confrontational word because
if you repudiate something then you're really
letting the other person know that you're a bit
unhappy, that you don't like this and you are
rejecting it, you repudiate it.
So right now I would like to advocate for you to write
us a comment and let us know an English word
that you have recently learned.
It could be any word, a noun, an adjective, a verb.
Just let us know, we love hearing
If you don't write us a comment, I'm not going
to bemoan the situation, I'm not even going to admonish you
but we would really appreciate it and if you do,
I will placate you by coming out
with another lesson next week.
I hope you enjoyed learning these new words
and you can go on and practice and use them,
please hit that like button if you found this lesson