First of all: Ray - noun Beam - verb & noun You can beam with pleasure/delight, or just 'beam at someone' which means smiling happily. Also beam is a line of light (noun). - a laser beam, the beam of torch, beams of sunlight/light. Usually 'ray' is a narrow beam of light, whereas 'beam' is a line of light that shines from a bright object, so the words (as nouns) are practically synonyms with differences in size. - We could just pic out the pack in the weak beam of the torch. - The rabbit stopped, mesmerised by the beam of the car's headlight. - the sun's rays - ultraviolet rays - The windows were shining in the reflected rays of the setting sun. - (figurative)... small ray of hope. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Daria has a good answer for you. Each of these words also has other meanings that are not associated with each other, so you might also want to look at an English dictionary to make sure you understand those.