Verbs
Actions and states: the engine of every English sentence.
Word guides
One word at a time, every sense. Words that work as more than one part of speech appear on each of their hubs.
Align
Bring into a line — literally at home, figuratively at work. The two registers side by side, the physical senses, timing and “the stars aligned”, the workhorse agreement sense, align with vs on vs to, the alignment noun from wheels to AI safety, misaligned incentives, what “we're not aligned” really means, both phrasebooks, the «согласовать» trap, and a quiz.
Read guide →Trace
One root image — a mark left behind by something that has passed. The noun senses from trace amounts to a stack trace, the verb that always looks backwards, trace to vs trace back to, the whole word family, the trace/track/trail split that «след» hides, distributed tracing and spans, a debugging phrasebook, the трасса false friend, and a quiz.
Read guide →Concern
The professional word for worry — and for whose job something is. One root (it touches you) splitting into worry and responsibility: the noun senses, the verb, concerned vs concerning, the about/with/by line, separation of concerns, a meeting phrasebook, the концерн false friend, and a quiz.
Read guide →Gotta
The most useful word you should never type in a client email. What gotta actually is, the two different words hiding behind one sound, all nine use cases, why it has no past tense, and a quiz.
Read guide →Ship
The industry's favourite verb: getting something out of the door and into users' hands. The tech sense vs the cargo sense, why shipped is not the same as finished, the deploy/release/launch ladder, “ship it” in code review, and a quiz.
Read guide →while — every use
One word, four jobs and a trap. Time, contrast, concession, and the noun — plus while vs during (the error that never dies), the «поки» problem, dangling while clauses, whilst, awhile vs a while, and a quiz.
Read guide →Word lists
Everyday Verbs
Common verbs you will use every day, with translations and examples.
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