Learning English Vocabulary

How many stars are there in the universe? Learn how to say big numbers in English.

"I have a confession to make. My ambition is to meet a Martian!" - We teach you suffixes.

Learn about synonyms - words that have the same or similar meaning.

Do you know your ouch! from your ugh!? These words are called interjections.

Finn and Catherine talk through some of the complexities of English spelling.

Rob and Catherine talk about words and short phrases used to connect ideas.

Disk or disc? Confused about which one to use? Finn and Catherine talk about spelling.

Nasa, Fifa, Unesco, Nato - Peter and Catherine talk about acronyms.

A good way of building vocabulary in English is to learn words with opposite meanings.

Learn how to use the suffixes '-ness' and '-ity' in English.

Words and phrases we use to express our attitude to what we’re saying or writing.

ExciteMENT, performANCE, differENCE - how suffixes turn verbs and adjectives into nouns.

Learn how to use these very useful pronouns with 'some' and 'any'.

Choose, chose, chosen... We talk about verbs that don't follow the -ed pattern.

Learn about verbs that we use when we talk about what someone else has said.

Embarrassed - or pregnant? Words you think you know but mean something else in English.

Cough, thought, enough, although: Learn how to pronounce words with 'ough'.

Boring or bored? Learn about words that look similar but have very different meaning.

Is this a smoke-free or a smokeless workplace? Learn the difference!

Do you suffer from DYSpepsia? Could a DEtox diet help? Neil and Finn talk about prefixes.

What's the date today? Do you know how to say it? Listen to the programme to find out.

Learn how these words are used: gonna, wanna, dunno, whatcha.

Can you count knowledge, money or happiness? How to deal with uncountable nouns.

Neil and Catherine look at time expressions with 'in', 'at' and 'on'.

Learn how to use hyphens: "They did a ten-foot dive into the swimming pool."

Catherine and Neil talk about spelling words with double letters, such as 'accommodation'.

'Increase' can be a noun or a verb and they aren't pronounced the same way...

Hear about differences and similarities in vocabulary from both sides of the Atlantic.

Can you think out of the box or take the helicopter view at work? Learn business jargon.

Listen out for words that begin with the /s/ sound but start with the letter 'c'.

A guide to multi-word verbs and prepositions that can change the meaning of phrasal verbs.

'REcycle', 'PREpacked', 'PROactive' - we talk about prefixes in 6 Minute Vocabulary.

We talk about letters in English that we see in words but don’t actually pronounce.

Learn about words that sound like the thing they describe.

Do you ever 'meet up with' your friend in the park? We talk about multi-word verbs.

'Classic' or 'classical'? Learn about adjectives ending in -ic and -ical.

'Terrified', 'fantastic', 'amazing' - learn how to use strong adjectives.

Policeman / policewoman, actor / actress - learn about job titles and gender.

'Selfie', 'photobomb', 'trolling'. Learn what these new words mean and how they are made.

The British love to talk about weather! Learn some useful vocabulary about it here.

Mail and male... Learn about words that sound the same but have different spellings.

Ice cream, popcorn... Learn about nouns made up of a combination of two words.

We talk about words like 'big' and 'large' and explore the similarities between them.

This is a big, old, smelly dog! Learn which adjective has to come first.

"I've run a marathon." Look at the shorter form 'I've'. Learn how to use contractions.

What's the connection between a teacher, a driver and a presenter? We explain.

How to pronounce the words 'photographer' and 'photograph'? Learn about word stress.

Learn how to use compound adjectives (e.g. low-fat yoghurt, high-quality carbohydrates).

Finn and Catherine give you some tips on how to remember new words.

Boring or bored? Interested or interesting? We'll tell you the right adjective to use.