One of the problems with English is that it happily absorbs words from other languages and it has been doing so for hundreds of years. :) This means that there are a lot of words in English that have very similar meanings. Sometimes they are interchangeable, other times there are subtle differences. In the case of your list, it goes something like this: "Accuse" means to say that someone has done something, eg "She accused him of stealing the necklace." If the police thought that he had done it, they would arrest him and "charge" him with the crime. This means that the thief will have to go to court to defend himself against the charges. (A "charge" is official. Anyone can "accuse" anyone of anything, but only the police can charge you.) If the jury decide that he really has done it, they will "convict" him of the charge. The judge will then decide what the punishment should be and will "sentence" him to 12 months in prison. In prison he will serve his sentence. "Condemn" also means to declare that someone is guilty and must be punished, but in British English it is usually linked with "condemning to death" and is therefore not used by judges, who these days "pass a sentence". It is, however, used informally and you will hear people talking about "condemning" people who have done things they don't approve of. "Doom" used to mean much the same as "condemn", but that meaning is now old fashioned, though you may find it in fantasy novels! It also means "death" or "end". You can say, "He fell to his doom," though people now only use "doom" if they are being humorous. :) The odd one out is "sue". That refers to taking someone to court for something that is not criminal, but could be something like infringing copyright or you can "sue" someone for libel or slander.