We’ve started a new series of videos on 1,000 useful words for IELTS, TOEL and Academic English in general.

Here is our first video:

However there on the website in contrast to our Youtube channel we are able to provide much more detail and give more examples.

So as mentioned in the video:

Abandon is a verb.

However abandon can also be used as a noun as we shall see later.

1. To leave a person, place or thing.
2. To stop doing something.

In the video there were three examples provided with the word ‘abandon’ in a more formal or academic context. It is important to remember though that the preposition which goes after ‘abandon’ is ‘by’.

The examples in the video were:

1. The government may have to abandon their tough laws and punishments on people breaking the rules as it might be counterproductive.

2. The company abandoned its strategy of marketing to teenagers and focused only on adults.

3. The school will abandon its plans to create a new swimming pool as it is too expensive.

But the best way to feel comfortable with this word is to see lots of examples and then develop a feeling of how it is used, in what context and then be able to produce a sentence yourself either in normal speech, writing or under test conditions.

Here are some more examples.

a) It can be argued that by abandoning investment in the north the government may have contributed to an increase in employment in that region.

b) It is believed that by abandoning the excessive consumption of fast food and other beneficial dietary habits, a significant improvement in health can be gained.

c) They have abandoned any claims that they ever had to being rightful owners of that property.

d) The idea of linguistic diversity was abandoned in favour of ensuring that everyone had one common language with which to communicate.

More examples can be provided for anyone who asks in the comments section.

Abandon the noun.

Abandon the noun means to do something with little care or lack of interest.

The preposition accompany abandon in this context is ‘with‘.

For example:

“He spent his money with great abandon.” (i.e wildly and not carefully)

Please feel free to ask questions and provide comments in the comments section below!