understand: translation
verb
ADVERB
▪ clearly, well
▪ completely, fully, perfectly, quite, thoroughly, totally, truly
▪ I fully understand the reason for your decision.
▪ better
▪ These categories help us to better understand our readers.
▪ not really, not truly
▪ Her actions wounded him in a way he did not really understand.
▪ not necessarily
▪ They won't necessarily understand the pros and cons of the matter.
▪ not entirely, partially
▪ a complex topic which I only partially understand
▪ barely, hardly
▪ I could barely understand a word of his story.
▪ adequately
▪ accurately, correctly, precisely, properly, rightly
▪ If I've understood you correctly …
▪ easily, readily
▪ The reasons for this decision are not easily understood.
▪ immediately, instantly, quickly, suddenly
▪ The girl understands immediately and promises to be more careful.
▪ finally
▪ I finally understood what she meant.
▪ instinctively, intuitively
▪ She intuitively understood his need to be alone.
VERB + UNDERSTAND
▪ be able to, can
▪ I can't understand what all the fuss is about.
▪ be unable to, fail to
▪ attempt to, hope to, seek to, strive to, try to
▪ Only specialists can hope to understand them.
▪ struggle to
▪ a woman struggling to understand an incomprehensible situation
▪ help (to), help sb (to)
▪ begin to, start to
▪ come to, learn to
▪ We came to understand why certain things happened in certain ways.
▪ She soon learnt to understand English.
▪ appear to, seem to
▪ claim to
▪ I don't claim to understand it.
▪ be easy to, be simple to
▪ be difficult to, be hard to
▪ It is difficult to understand why he reacted in that way.
PREPOSITION
▪ about
▪ We understand little about this disease.
▪ as
▪ These beliefs are best understood as a form of escapism.
PHRASES
▪ be commonly understood, be generally understood, be popularly understood
▪ What is generally understood by ‘democracy’?
▪ be imperfectly understood, be incompletely understood, be poorly understood
▪ The effects of these chemicals on the body are still poorly understood.
▪ be universally understood, be widely understood
Understand is used with these nouns as the object: ↑basics, ↑business, ↑cause, ↑complexity, ↑concept, ↑concern, ↑culture, ↑danger, ↑difference, ↑distinction, ↑enormity, ↑essence, ↑extent, ↑feeling, ↑frustration, ↑fundamentals, ↑gist, ↑gravity, ↑grief, ↑impact, ↑implication, ↑importance, ↑influence, ↑instruction, ↑intricacy, ↑issue, ↑joke, ↑language, ↑limitation, ↑logic, ↑magnitude, ↑meaning, ↑mind, ↑motivation, ↑motive, ↑mystery, ↑nature, ↑necessity, ↑need, ↑nuance, ↑phenomenon, ↑plight, ↑point, ↑point of view, ↑politics, ↑predicament, ↑problem, ↑reality, ↑reason, ↑reasoning, ↑reference, ↑relationship, ↑reluctance, ↑risk, ↑role, ↑rule, ↑science, ↑sentiment, ↑seriousness, ↑significance, ↑situation, ↑subtlety, ↑symbol, ↑symbolism, ↑system, ↑technicality, ↑terminology, ↑text, ↑value, ↑viewpoint, ↑word, ↑workings