1. What do the following words have in common?

BREAD
EVEN
FREE
RANKS
OPEN

2. What do the following words have in common?

IRK
ELL
ALL
ART
EAR
ASH
OTHER

Answers:

1. Each word is commonly preceded by BREAK. 

2. Each word can be preceded by SM to make a new word:

SMIRK
SMELL
SMALL
SMART
SMEAR
SMASH
SMOTHER