VERBS IN EN

This resource shows you one simple shortcut to expand your vocabulary easily and immediately.
The trick is to add the suffix/ending ‘en’ to adjectives or nouns to create useful verbs. Since you already know the meaning of most of these basic adjectives and nouns, the hard part is done! When you add ‘en’, it creates a verb which means to make more of the quality that the adjective or noun describes.

How it works

short + en = shorten
The new verb shorten means to make something shorter.
length + en = lengthen
The new verb lengthen means to increase something in length.
It’s that simple!

Formula

adjective
or
noun + en = verb

Examples

Size
short	shorten
wide	widen
deep	deepen
broad	broaden
length	lengthen
height	heighten

Color
white	whiten
dark	darken
light	lighten
red	redden
bright	brighten

Other
hard	harden
soft	soften
thick	thicken
quick	quicken
damp	dampen
sharp	sharpen
weak	weaken
quiet	quieten
fresh	freshen
smart	smarten
straight	straighten
rough	roughen
tough	toughen
sweet	sweeten
moist	moisten
loose	loosen
tight	tighten
worse	worsen
ripe	ripen
slack	slacken
dead	deaden
less	lessen
sad	sadden
glad	gladden
flat	flatten
stiff	stiffen
deaf	deafen
sick	sicken
fat	fatten
awake	awaken
great	greaten
mad	madden
coarse	coarsen
fast	fasten
fright	frighten
threat	threaten
haste	hasten
strength	strengthen

By using this vocabulary hack, you can expand word families to include more dynamic verbs while speaking and writing English.