Practice
English vocabulary practice: useful words beginning with H
Sign in to saveA familiar first letter does not make a word easy to use. The words in this lesson appear in daily conversations, messages, and workplace plans, but each one has a different job in a sentence.
Use seven common B1 words beginning with H in clear everyday sentences.
Read and practice
Read the examples and try the written questions in this guide. Listening recordings are not available for this lesson yet.
Try the written questions
habit; hesitate; household /ˈhæb.ɪt/; /ˈhez.ɪ.teɪt/; /ˈhaʊs.həʊld/
The short answer
Use habit for a repeated action, handle for dealing with a situation, healthy for something that supports good health, hesitate for pausing before you act, helpful for something that gives useful help, honest for someone who tells the truth, and household for the people who live together or the home they share.
Checking the calendar every morning is a useful habit.
Why it works: Habit names a repeated action.
2 more examples
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Leila handled the customer complaint calmly.
Handled means dealt with the complaint.
Not this:Leila gave the customer
an honest answer. What changes: Honest describes whether the answer was truthful. It does not mean dealing with the complaint. -
We packed healthy lunches for the train journey.
Healthy describes food that supports good health.
Not this:We packed the lunches for
the whole household. What changes: Household identifies the people at home who will receive the lunches.
Read the full guide
Ask what the sentence needs: a repeated action, a way to deal with a problem, a description of health, a pause, help, truthfulness, or a group at home. That meaning points to the word.
Start with the sentence's job
Do not choose a word only because it fits the topic. Check what the sentence needs. A regular action needs habit, while a person who tells the truth needs honest. The grammar around the word also helps: habit is a noun, and honest is an adjective.
Her habit of writing notes helped her remember appointments.
Use habit for a repeated action
A habit is something a person does regularly, often without much thought. It can be useful, harmless, or difficult to change. Use a before a singular habit and habits when you mean more than one repeated action.
Taking a short walk after lunch became his favorite habit.
Use routine when you mean a planned order of actions. Use habit when you focus on one repeated action.
Use handle when you deal with something
Handle is useful for tasks, equipment, questions, and difficult situations. In work messages, it often means that a person will take responsibility for a task. It can also mean touch or carry an object, so the object after the verb gives you the meaning.
Can you handle the booking while I call the venue?
Use healthy for food, choices, and people
Healthy describes something connected with good health. Put it before a noun, as in healthy meal, or after be, as in The child is healthy. Healthy does not always mean perfect. It describes a general connection with good health.
They chose a healthy meal before the evening class.
Use hesitate for a pause before action
When someone hesitates, they pause because they are unsure, nervous, or considering a choice. You can hesitate before doing something or hesitate to do something. The word describes the pause, not the final decision.
Nora hesitated before asking for more time.
Use helpful, honest, and household precisely
Helpful describes assistance that makes a task easier. Honest describes a person or statement that tells the truth. Household can name everyone who lives in one home, or it can describe home-related things such as household bills. These three words often appear in practical conversations about sharing work and making decisions.
His honest advice was helpful when our household planned the monthly budget.
Before you go
Remember this
Choose H words by the role they play. A habit repeats. You handle a task or situation. Healthy relates to good health. Hesitate describes a pause before action. Helpful gives assistance, honest tells the truth, and household relates to the people or life in a home.
Practice with the written examples
You can practice with the written questions in the Learn tab. Each answer includes an explanation.
Try the written questionsListening test not available yet
This lesson does not have the recordings needed for a listening test. Use the written questions in the guide to check your understanding.
Try the written questionsQuestions about "English vocabulary practice: useful words beginning with H"
What does habit mean?
A habit is a repeated action. In the lesson example, checking the calendar every morning is a habit because the action happens regularly. A habit can be useful or difficult to change.
Checking the calendar every morning is a useful habit.
How do I use handle in a sentence?
Use handle as a verb when a person deals with a task, question, or situation. Leila handled a customer complaint, which means that she dealt with it calmly.
Checking the calendar this morning was helpful.
What is the difference between healthy and helpful?
Healthy describes something connected with good health, such as a healthy lunch. Helpful describes something that gives useful assistance, such as checking the calendar at the right time.
Leila handled the customer complaint calmly.
Does hesitate mean refuse?
No. Hesitate means pause before acting because you are unsure or need time to decide. A person can hesitate before asking a question and still ask it afterward.
Leila gave the customer an honest answer.
What can household mean?
Household can mean the people who live in one home. It can also describe home-related things, such as household bills or a household budget. In the lunch example, it refers to the people at home.
We packed healthy lunches for the train journey.