to contribute / a contribution

‘Contribute’ is a more formal word for ‘give’, especially when you give your time, money or ideas to a group. It can also have a more general meaning of 'effect' or 'influence'. The noun is ‘contribution’, so if you’ve given a lot, you can also say you’ve made a substantial contribution.

I felt out of place at the meeting as I didn’t really have anything to contribute.

They made a major contribution to the field of cancer treatment with their development of new methods for identification of risk factors.

more example sentences        questions for personal practice        unit 14    exercise 8.1    exercise 8.6

[ Home ] [ Up ]

to assign / assignment

To assign means to give a particular task or value or to put in a group or category. So, in research, it’s common to assign people to different categories so that they can be compared. In the workplace, different employees can be assigned to specific departments or teams. If you assign blame, it means you decide who is responsible for a mistake or accident. Of course, the noun ‘assignment’ is familiar to many students. If you have an assignment, it means you’ve been given a particular task to do. Normally, at university, this is an essay, report or presentation.

She was assigned the task of rescuing the company from the edge of bankruptcy.

I have three assignments to do this month: one essay, one report and one presentation.

more example sentences        questions for personal practice        unit 5

[ Home ] [ Up ]