Virtuous English AcademyAmbitions & Success — B1 English Vocabulary
This B1 vocabulary list gathers 40 intermediate English words about ambitions & success — goals, drive and reaching for what you want. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using ambitions & success words in English
Success vocabulary is where learners most often reach for a word that is close but not current. English has three verbs for reaching a goal — achieve, accomplish and succeed — and they take three different structures, only one of which allows an infinitive. Alongside them sits a spelling point worth fixing now: fulfil has one l in British English and two in American, and it doubles again in fulfilled.
What to watch out for
Succeed in doing, not succeed to do
Succeed is followed by in and an -ing form: She succeeded in changing their minds. The infinitive belongs to manage: She managed to change their minds. Achieve and accomplish take a direct object instead and cannot be followed by a verb at all: achieve your aim, accomplish a great deal. Mixing these is the commonest error on this list.
Achieve is for goals; accomplish is for tasks
You achieve an ambition, a target, a result or a standard — things that were difficult and took time. You accomplish a task or a mission, and the word is slightly more formal. Note that neither takes a person as an object: you cannot achieve somebody. The related noun achievement is countable, so a remarkable achievement and her achievements are both correct.
Determined to, motivation to, potential for
These fixed patterns carry a lot of weight in writing: determined to finish, the motivation to keep going, the potential for growth, a challenge for the team. Note that improve takes a direct object with no preposition — improve your English, never improve in your English — while the noun does take one: an improvement in your English.
Words learners mix up
Three tables: four words for a goal and how precise each one is, four verbs for keeping going when it is hard, and four nouns whose countability decides whether the sentence is right.
Four words for a goal, from vague to exact
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| aim | The general purpose behind what you are doing. It takes to plus a verb, or at plus a noun. | The aim is to cut waiting times. |
| target | A specific figure or date. You set, meet, hit or miss one, never reach to it. | We missed our sales target by a fortnight. |
| ambition | A long-term personal goal, often for a whole career. Countable, and the adjective is ambitious. | Her ambition is to run her own studio. |
| milestone | A point you pass on the way rather than the destination. Countable, and it takes a major or an important. | Reaching a thousand members was a milestone. |
The verbs are what separate these words in practice: aims are set and achieved, targets are hit or missed, and milestones are reached or passed. Note that a milestone is not a goal at all but a marker, which is why a project can pass several milestones and still fail to meet its target.
Four verbs for keeping going
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| persevere | To carry on despite difficulty. It takes with or in, and the noun is perseverance. | She persevered with the course for three years. |
| strive | To make great efforts. It takes to plus a verb or for plus a noun. Irregular: strove, striven. | The company strives to reduce its waste. |
| overcome | To succeed in dealing with something in your way. Irregular, and the past participle is the same as the base form. | He overcame serious injuries to compete. |
| excel | To be very good at something. It takes at or in, and the l doubles in excelled. | She excels at anything involving numbers. |
All four are formal, which is what makes them useful in written English and slightly odd in conversation, where keep going, try hard and get over do the same work. Overcome is the only one that takes a direct object with no preposition, and its participle catching people out is worth watching: had overcome, not had overcame.
Four nouns, and one of them counts
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| effort | Uncountable for energy in general and countable for one attempt: make an effort. | It took a great deal of effort. |
| dedication | Uncountable. Complete commitment to something over time, and it takes to. | Her dedication to the team is obvious. |
| confidence | Uncountable. It takes in, and the fixed phrase is lose confidence. | He has grown in confidence this year. |
| opportunity | Countable, always. It takes to plus a verb or for plus a noun. | This is a real opportunity to learn something new. |
Opportunity is the error to fix, because it is uncountable in several other languages and countable in English: it needs an or a plural, so I had opportunity to speak is wrong and I had an opportunity to speak is right. Effort works both ways and shifts meaning: put in effort is about energy while make an effort is about one particular attempt.
Collocations that sound natural
Six words that appear in personal statements, appraisals and motivational writing. Each has a verb attached that cannot be predicted from the meaning.
reward
a reward forreward somebody witha well-deserved rewardrewarding work
Noun and verb with one spelling. The adjective rewarding means satisfying rather than well paid, which is why a rewarding job and a well-paid job are two different compliments — and often two different jobs.
focus
focus on the detailsthe main focuslose focusstay focused
The verb always takes on, and the adjective focused takes a single s. British English writes both focused and focussed, though the single s is now standard, and the noun is uncountable in this sense.
commitment
make a commitmenta long-term commitmentcommitment to the projecta prior commitment
Countable for a particular promise and uncountable for the quality of being committed. A prior commitment is the standard polite British reason for declining an invitation without saying what it is.
breakthrough
a major breakthroughmake a breakthrougha breakthrough in researcha breakthrough moment
One word, countable, and the verb is make or achieve. The field takes in. Note it comes from the phrasal verb break through, which stays two words when used as a verb.
encourage
encourage somebody to applystrongly encourageencouraging newsencouragement from her family
It takes a person and then an infinitive, which makes it one of the safe verbs in that pattern. The adjective encouraging describes the news rather than the person, and the noun encouragement is uncountable.
dream
a dream come truefollow your dreamsdream of owning a housea lifelong dream
The verb takes of or about plus an -ing form. British English uses the irregular past dreamt alongside dreamed, and a dream come true is a fixed phrase with no article inside it.
Where each word belongs
Seven words carrying a level of formality or a second sense. Success vocabulary is heavily used in writing about yourself, where an over-strong word does more harm than a plain one.
- capableTwo senses · and one fixed prepositionBefore a noun it means competent: a capable manager. After be it needs of plus an -ing form and describes what somebody could do, sometimes ominously: he is capable of anything. The noun is capability.
- triumphStrong · writing and sportA great victory, and considerably stronger than success. It belongs to journalism, sport and formal writing, so describing your own exam result as a triumph will read as ironic in Britain. The verb takes over.
- prosperFormal · and the adjective is commonerTo succeed and become wealthy over time, used about businesses, regions and communities more than about individuals. In practice the adjective prosperous and the noun prosperity appear far more often than the verb does.
- aspireFormal · takes toTo have a strong ambition, and it always takes to — either a noun or a verb. It sits in personal statements and speeches rather than conversation, and aspirations in the plural is the standard noun in British education writing.
- advanceNoun, verb, and a fixed phraseAs a verb it means to move forward or to make progress; as a noun it names a step forward or money paid early. The fixed phrase in advance means beforehand and is far commoner than either, as in book in advance.
- determineFormal · and not the same as determinedThe verb means to establish something after investigation: the cause has not yet been determined. That is a quite separate idea from the adjective determined, which describes somebody who refuses to give up, so the two should not be treated as one word family in practice.
- successfulAdjective · watch the prepositionIt takes in plus an -ing form: successful in raising the money. The adverb successfully is the more natural choice in a sentence, and the double c and double s in the spelling are worth checking every time.
Sentences to try
Four frames built on the structures above. Rewrite each one around a goal you are actually working towards.
- She finally succeeded in passing the exam.
- He is determined to achieve his ambition this year.
- There has been a real improvement in her writing.
- The job is a challenge, but it has a lot of potential.
Questions about ambitions & success vocabulary
Is it "succeed to do" or "succeed in doing"?
Succeed in doing. The verb takes the preposition in followed by an -ing form: They succeeded in reducing costs. If you want an infinitive, change the verb to manage: They managed to reduce costs. The two mean much the same thing, but only manage allows to. Note also that succeed has a second, unrelated meaning — to follow somebody in a position — as in She succeeded him as director.
What is the difference between achieve and accomplish?
They overlap heavily and you will rarely be wrong with either. Achieve is the more common word and pairs with goals, ambitions, results and standards: achieve a high score. Accomplish is a little more formal and pairs with tasks and missions — things with a defined end point: accomplish the task in two days. Neither can take a person as its object, and neither can be followed by another verb, which is what separates them from manage and succeed.
How do you spell fulfil in British English?
British English spells it fulfil with one l at the end; American English writes fulfill with two. Both double the l before an ending, so fulfilled, fulfilling and fulfilment are British — though Americans write fulfillment with a double l there too. The same single-l pattern appears in British skilful and instil, which is worth noting because most other verbs double the l in British English, as in travelled.