Basic English Words

Abbreviations

aj     adjective               pn     pronoun
aux    auxiliary               pr     preposition
av     adverb                  pres   present tense
cj     conjunction             rel    relative
ij     interjection            sfx    suffix
n      noun                    v      verb
num    numeral                 vi     intransitive verb
pfx    prefix                  vt     transitive verb

OPPOSITES
awake	female	safe
bad	foolish	secret
bent	future	short
bitter	green	shut
blue	ill	simple
certain	last	slow
cold	late	small
complete	left	soft
cruel	loose	solid
dark	loud	special
dead	low	strange
dear	mixed	thin
delicate	narrow	white
different	old	wrong
dirty	opposite
dry	public
false	rough
feeble	sad
PREPOSITIONS
across (at/to the other side of)	about	at
after (in the future of)	because of	before
before (in front of)	in back of	in
between, among	like	near
for (for the purpose of)	of	on
for (in exchange for)	other than	over
from (out of)	through	to, at
than [pr/cj]	under	with
VERBS [v]
be	become	cause
make	do	have
CONJUNCTIVES [cj]
and	but	or
if (on condition that)	than [pr/cj]
2. FUNCTIONS
is/are able to [aux v pres]	not [av]	when? [av]
this [aj/pn]	that [aj/pn]	where? [av]
here (in/to this place) [av]		why? [av]
there (at/to that place) [av]	only [av]	how? [av]
together [av]	any [aj]	every [aj]
3. PEOPLE, TITLES [n]
person	baby	boy
girl	man	woman
family	father	mother
son	daughter	brother
sister	chief	friend
society	committee	nation
public
6. BODY PARTS [n]
arm	back	blood
body	bone	brain
chest	chin	ear
egg	eye	face
feather	finger	foot
hair	hand	head
horn (bone-like, from animal's head)	heart	knee
leg	lip	meat
mouth	muscle	nail (finger nail)
neck	nerve	nose
skin	stomach	tail
throat	thumb	toe
tongue (body-part)	tooth	blood vessel
wing (of bird)	wound
berry (small fruit)	flower	fruit
leaf	nut	root (of a plant)
seed
7. BODY TERMS
dead [aj]	birth	healthy [aj]
disease	fat [aj]	sex
female [aj]	male [aj]	sense
pain	pleasure	tired [aj]
8. ACTIVITY [v]
sleep *	awake [aj]	bite *
have sex (with)	cry out *	cry *
drink *	jump *	kick *
kiss *	laugh *	run *
smile *	sneeze *	swim *
taste *	touch *	walk *
9. ANIMALS/NATURE [n]
animal	ant	bee
bird	cat	cow
dog	fish	fly
goat	horse	insect
monkey	pig	sheep
snake	worm	apple
cork	cotton	grass
orange	potato	rice
garden	grain	plant
tree	cloud	earth
field	island	moon
mountain	rain	river
sky	snow	star
sun	thunder	weather
wind
12. THINGS [n]
rod	basket	bed
bell	blade	board
bottle	box	brake
brick	brush	button
chain	clock	comb
cord	cover	cup
curtain	drain	fork
frame	gun	hammer
hook	horn	key
knife	lock	machine
match (little fire-stick)	engine	nail
needle	net	oven
parcel	pen	pencil
cushion	pipe	plate
plough	pocket	stick
pot (deep round vessel)	pump	rail
bag	sail	scale
scissors	screw	sign
shelf	sponge	spoon
spring	table	tray
umbrella	wheel	wire
13. CLOTHES
coat	collar	glove
trousers	shirt	shoe
skirt, dress
14. BUILDINGS
building	door	lift
floor	roof	wall
window	church	hospital
house	library	school
bridge	farm	market
15. HIERARCHY
army	authority	control [v] *
crime	free	government
law	military [aj]	nation
let [v]	tax	war
16. BUSINESS
account	credit	company (a business org)
give [v]	insurance	keep
money	offer	private
public	reward [v] *	take
value
17. RELIGION, MIND
religion
angry [aj]	hate [v] *	design
art	hope [v] *	play
attention	important [aj]	act [v] *
care	interest	self-respect
comfort	judge	thought
doubt [v] *	knowledge	regret [v] *
experience	love [v] *	look for [v] *
fear	mind	shame
foolish [aj]	kind [aj]	theory
guide, lead [v] *	opinion	desire [v] *
happy [aj]	peace	wise [aj]
19. COMMUNICATION
advertisement	language	print
book	letter	record
order	list	secret [aj]
talk about [v] *	map
fact	motion picture	sign
fiction	name	voice
history	noise	word
be a sign of [v]	page
20. GAMES
match	ball	stick
21. IDENTITY
different [aj]	change	copy
23 QUANTITY
amount	number	measure [v] *
rate	rest (of ...)	complete [aj]
all	group	a small number of [aj]
24 DEGREE
degree	little	much, very
DIMENSION, DIRECTION
size
distance	low, short	up [av]
far [aj/av]	angle	down [av]
near [aj/av]	position	north
present	front	south
wide	back part of	east
narrow	edge	west
thick, fat	direction	right(-hand) [aj]
thin	back	left(-hand) [aj]
26. MOTION
base, station [v]	go [v]	fly (through air) [v] *
come	go into [v]	roll [v]
come across	slip [v] *
27. VEHICLES
boat	road	cart, carriage
ship	street	train
28. TIME, SEQUENCE
young	new	start [v] *
old	time	stop [v] *
rhythm
TIME
past	in the near past [av]	ever (at any time) [av]
the present	now, at this time [av]	still
future	in the near future [av]	in the far future [av]	order
year	spring	day
month	summer	night
week	fall	morning
day	winter	middle of the night
hour	yesterday [av]	time
minute	tomorrow [av]	on time [av/aj]
second
29. MATERIALS
air	ice	sand
brass	ink	silk
chalk	iron	silver (the metal)
chemical	lead (the metal)	soap
cloth	leather	steam
coal	metal	steel
copper	oil	tin (the metal)
dust	paint	water
earth	paper	wax
glass	stone	wood (the substance)
gold	salt	wool
30. FOODS
bitter [aj]	taste	soup
bread	grain (powder)	sugar
butter	food	sweet [aj]
cheese	milk	wine
31. FORMS OF MATTER
arch	jelly	powder
branch	line	ray
card	liquid	smoke
circle	mark	solid
curve	material, substance
drop (of liquid)	parallel [aj]	square
hole	paste	wave
32. PROPERTIES
Qualities of Matter
level,even,same level [aj]	smooth [aj]	bent [aj]
straight, not bent [aj]	clean [aj]	dry [aj]
open, not shut [aj]	shut [aj]	wet [aj]
elastic	delicate [aj]	strong [aj]
of much weight [aj]	weight	light, of little weight [aj]
solid	hollow [aj]	loose
tight [aj]	thick [aj]
MATTER-RELATED ACTIONS
blow	burn [v] *	burst [v] *
crush	fold [v] *	pull
push	shake [v] *	wash [v] *
MATTER/ENERGY TERMS
acid	fire	force
a blow of force	mist	power
35. LIGHT
see [v]	light	color
shade	bright [aj]	dark
black [aj]	grey [aj]	white [aj]
red [aj]	orange	yellow [aj]
green [aj]	blue [aj]	brown [aj]
beautiful [aj]
36. SOUND
sound	loud	quiet, soft
hear [v]	music	whistle [v] *
37. HEAT
cool, of little heat [aj]	cook [v] *
of very much heat [aj]	warm [aj]
38. ASSORTED ABSTRACT
attack [v] *	good [aj]	bad [aj]
kind, sort	probable	simple [aj]
complex [aj]	make [v]	danger
hard [aj]	true [aj]	damage [v] *
automatic [aj]	special [aj]	detail
equal [aj]	fertile [aj]	harmony
right (... to do/be)	match	system
attempt [v] *	science	support [v] *

All items are nouns unless otherwise marked.
Starred (*) verb forms are, strictly speaking, used only as nouns: instead of "I attempted to come", say, "I made an attempt to come."

Ogden's Basic English

Universal Language Dictionary

Last updated on September 5, 1996
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