Virtuous English AcademyChange & Development — B1 English Vocabulary
This B1 vocabulary list gathers 40 intermediate English words about change & development — growth, trends and how things shift. 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 change & development words in English
This is the vocabulary of describing graphs, trends and processes, which makes it some of the most examinable language at B1. Two pairs of verbs cause most of the trouble. Rise and raise differ by whether something else does the lifting, and adapt and adopt differ by a single vowel and a great deal of meaning. On top of that, increase and decrease shift their stress between noun and verb.
What to watch out for
Rise happens by itself; raise needs an agent
Prices rose sharply — no object, the prices went up on their own. The company raised its prices — somebody did it, so an object follows. Rise is irregular: rise, rose, risen. Raise is regular. The same intransitive-transitive split separates lie from lay, and it is worth learning the two verbs as a pair rather than separately.
Adapt and adopt are one vowel apart
Adapt means to change something so it fits new conditions: They adapted the design for a smaller room, He adapted quickly to the new job. Adopt means to take something on as your own: The council adopted the proposal, They adopted a child. The nouns are adaptation and adoption. The pair is easy to mishear as well as to misspell, so it repays a little attention.
Stress shifts, and reduce by against reduce to
The noun is IN-crease and the verb is in-CREASE; decrease behaves the same way. And the preposition after reduce changes the arithmetic completely: reduced by 20% means it lost a fifth, while reduced to 20% means only a fifth remains. The same distinction applies to increase by and rise to, and it matters in any description of data.
Words learners mix up
Three tables: four verbs for making a small change, the four nouns a graph description cannot do without, and four adjectives that describe the shape of a change rather than its size.
Four verbs for a small change
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| adjust | To make a small correction so something works better. It takes a direct object, and adjust to means get used to. | He adjusted the mirror before setting off. |
| modify | To change part of a design or a plan deliberately. More formal, and the noun is modification. | The engine has been slightly modified. |
| alter | To change how something is or looks. In British shops alterations are changes made to clothing. | Nothing you say now will alter the outcome. |
| vary | To be different at different times, and it usually has no object at all: prices vary. | Opening hours vary from branch to branch. |
Vary is the odd one because it usually describes something changing on its own rather than somebody changing it, which is why prices vary needs no agent. The pair to keep apart is adjust to and adapt to: adjusting is a small correction you make, while adapting is becoming suited to new conditions over time.
Up and down: the four nouns a graph needs
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| growth | Uncountable. The general process of getting bigger, and it takes in: growth in demand. | The region has seen steady growth. |
| decline | Usually singular with an article: a sharp decline in numbers. The verb needs no object. | There has been a decline in applications. |
| rise | Countable, and it takes in for what is going up and of for the amount. | A rise in fuel prices of nearly ten per cent. |
| fall | Countable, and it mirrors rise exactly in its prepositions. In American English the noun is often drop. | A sudden fall in temperature followed. |
The pattern to memorise is a rise in X of Y: the thing that changed takes in and the size of the change takes of. Getting these two round the wrong way is the commonest error in exam graph descriptions, and it happens with increase, decrease, rise and fall alike, so fixing one fixes the set.
The shape of a change, in four adjectives
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| gradual | Happening slowly in stages. The adverb gradually is far more common than the adjective. | There has been a gradual improvement. |
| sudden | Happening without warning. The fixed phrase all of a sudden uses it as a noun. | A sudden drop in bookings caught them out. |
| drastic | Extreme and usually unwelcome. It suggests the change went further than anybody wanted. | They had to take drastic action. |
| constant | Two senses: never stopping, and never varying. Only context decides which. | The noise was constant all night. |
Constant is genuinely ambiguous and worth handling with care in writing: constant complaints means they never stop, while a constant temperature means it never changes. In a report about figures the second sense is meant, and if there is any doubt steady and continuous each pick out one of the two.
Collocations that sound natural
Six words from writing about processes and reforms. Three of them belong to phrasal verbs that mean something the individual words do not.
trend
a growing trenda trend towardsbuck the trendset a trend
Countable, and the direction takes towards. Buck the trend means to go the opposite way from everybody else, and it appears constantly in British business and sports reporting.
phase
a difficult phasethe next phasego through a phasephase out
Countable for one stage of a longer process. Phase out means to stop something gradually rather than all at once, and its opposite is phase in. Going through a phase is usually said about somebody young.
boost
give the economy a boostboost confidencea much-needed boosta boost to morale
Noun and verb, both countable and both positive. The recipient takes to as a noun and a direct object as a verb. It is journalistic in flavour, which is why headlines use it far more than academic writing does.
reform
reform the systema package of reformseducational reformreform is overdue
Uncountable for the general process and countable for particular measures, which is why a package of reforms is plural. It always implies improvement, so a change for the worse is never called a reform.
replace
replace the old systemreplace A with Bbe replaced bya replacement part
The new thing takes with in the active and by in the passive, which is a distinction worth practising: we replaced it with a newer model against it was replaced by a newer model. The noun is replacement.
renew
renew a passportrenewed interestrenew a subscriptionrenewable energy
To extend something for a further period, which is what British forms mean by renew your licence. The participle renewed also means returning after a gap, as in renewed interest, and it takes no article.
Where each word belongs
Seven words carrying a strength, a formality or a second sense that has nothing to do with change. This vocabulary is heavily used in reports, where an over-strong word misstates the evidence.
- transformStrong · complete change onlyIt means changing so completely that the result is a different thing, which is why the town has been transformed is a large claim. For ordinary change the word is change, and the noun transformation carries the same weight.
- evolveWriting · gradual and unplannedTo develop slowly over a long period, usually without anybody directing it, which is what separates it from develop. Its biological origin still colours it, so the role has evolved implies nobody sat down and redesigned it.
- revolutionTwo senses that share nothingA complete political overthrow, or a complete change in how something is done — the digital revolution. It also means one full turn of a wheel, which is why an engine has revolutions per minute. The adjective revolutionary is heavily overused in advertising.
- transitionFormal · noun first, verb laterThe period of moving from one state to another, and it takes from and to. It is a noun in most writing, though the verb has become common in recent English. In conversation people simply say the change.
- enhanceFormal · improve is the plain wordTo make something better in quality or value, and it takes a direct object. It belongs to reports, product descriptions and job adverts, where it has been used so heavily that improve often reads as more honest.
- swapInformal · and a British spellingTo exchange one thing for another, and thoroughly informal: shall we swap seats? The formal equivalent is exchange, and the thing you receive takes for. British English writes swap where older texts sometimes have swop.
- developmentCountable, uncountable, and a building siteUncountable for the process of growing or improving, and countable for a new event in a story: the latest developments. In British English a development is also a newly built group of houses, which is a third sense entirely.
Sentences to try
Four frames for describing a trend or a graph. Say the stress-shift words aloud in both forms.
- Unemployment rose sharply in the first quarter.
- The government raised taxes to reduce the deficit.
- Prices were reduced by ten per cent during the sale.
- The company has adapted quickly to the new trend.
Questions about change & development vocabulary
What is the difference between rise and raise?
Rise is intransitive: it takes no object and describes something going up by itself. The sun rises at six, Prices have risen. It is irregular — rise, rose, risen. Raise is transitive: it needs an object and means somebody or something lifts it. She raised her hand, They raised the price. It is regular. A useful test: if you can ask raise what? and get an answer, you need raise; if nothing follows, you need rise. The nouns differ too: British English says a pay rise where American English says a raise.
What is the difference between adapt and adopt?
Adapt means to change something, or yourself, to suit new circumstances: The novel was adapted for television, She adapted to the climate quickly. Adopt means to take something on and make it yours: They adopted a new policy, The couple adopted two children. The nouns are adaptation and adoption. Because the two verbs differ by one vowel and both appear in formal writing about change, they are worth deliberately practising rather than trusting to recognition.
Does "reduced by 20%" mean the same as "reduced to 20%"?
No, and the difference is large. Reduced by 20% means it lost a fifth of its value: a price of £100 becomes £80. Reduced to 20% means only a fifth is left: £100 becomes £20. The same contrast applies to increase by and increase to, and to rise by and rise to. In exam tasks that describe graphs, this pair of prepositions carries most of the meaning, so it is worth checking every time you write a figure.