TOEIC Vocabulary List: The Words That Decide Email and Notice Questions
Forty words that flip TOEIC reading answers in emails and notices, sorted by what they change, with a five-question set where one word decides each answer.
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In TOEIC Reading Part 7, two answers often differ by one word. You understood the email, you found the line, and you still chose the wrong option because a single verb changed a condition rather than a topic.
That is the shape of the reading section: it does not test whether you know business vocabulary in general, it tests whether you notice the small words that change what a notice obliges you to do. This toeic vocabulary list collects the ones that decide answers.
Why these words decide answers
A topic word tells you what the text is about: shipment, invoice, conference. Missing it is annoying but usually recoverable from context.
A condition word tells you what changed: postponed, waived, subject to, unless. Missing it produces a confident wrong answer, because the rest of the sentence still fits.
The distinction is worth holding on to while you study. You are not collecting vocabulary; you are collecting switches.
Group one: time changes
postpone to move later. bring forward to move earlier. extend to make longer. suspend to stop temporarily. resume to start again. pending waiting for something. promptly immediately. thereafter after that.
The inspection has been postponed until further notice means it is not happening now, which is the opposite of the inspection will proceed as scheduled.
Group two: permission and obligation
require to make necessary. permit to allow. prohibit to forbid. waive to give up a fee or rule. exempt not covered by a rule. eligible allowed to apply. mandatory required. optional not required. subject to depending on.
Employees are exempt from the fee and employees must pay the fee differ by one word and by the answer.
Group three: money
invoice a bill. receipt proof of payment. refund money returned. reimburse to pay someone back. deduct to take away. installment one of several payments. overdue late. waive free of charge in context.
A handling fee will be deducted is not the same as a handling fee will be refunded, and Part 7 loves that pair.
Group four: process steps
submit to send for review. approve to accept. process to handle. forward to send on. confirm to make certain. enclose to include. attach to add a file. accompany to go with.
Please submit the form before it can be approved tells you the order of two steps, and questions about sequence turn on exactly that.
The three-line card that beats a list
For each word, write three lines: the word, one sentence from a real notice, and the opposite.
postpone / The meeting has been postponed to 14 March. / opposite: brought forward.
The opposite line is the one that pays. Part 7 answers are usually built as a paraphrase of the text with one condition reversed, so knowing both directions is what lets you reject the decoy.
A five-question set where one word decides
The training session has been brought forward to 9 a.m.Question: when does the session start? Answer: earlier than planned. Decoy: 9 a.m. was the original time.
Staff who joined after January are not eligible for the bonus.Question: who receives the bonus? Answer: staff who joined before January. Decoy: everyone.
A replacement badge will be issued at no charge.Question: what does the employee pay? Answer: nothing. Decoy: the standard fee.
Please forward the signed form to HR before approval.Question: what happens first? Answer: the form goes to HR. Decoy: approval comes first.
The canteen is closed until further notice.Question: when does it reopen? Answer: unknown. Decoy: tomorrow.
Five questions, five condition words, and in each case the rest of the sentence was irrelevant.
How to learn them in two weeks
Week one: ten words a day, each with its opposite, said out loud. That is fifty words including opposites, which is more than most candidates learn in a month of list reading.
Week two: take one real notice or email a day from any public source, and underline every condition word. Do not answer questions; just find the switches.
That second week is what converts a list into a skill, because finding the switch is the actual test.
Frequently asked questions
Which TOEIC words decide email questions?
The condition words rather than the topic words: postpone, bring forward, waive, exempt, eligible, subject to, deduct, refund, submit, approve, forward, until further notice. Each one changes what the text requires rather than what it is about, and the decoy answer usually repeats the text with that condition reversed.
How many TOEIC words should I learn a week?
Ten words with their opposites, which is twenty items, is a sustainable week if you say them aloud and meet them again in a real notice. Learning fifty words a week from a list feels productive and produces recognition without recall, which is the state that fails under time pressure.