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Learning English Vocabulary

BBC Radio

Build your English vocabulary with these short programmes.

Each week we explore a new topic to improve your English vocabulary. Learn words for the weather, how to talk about people’s jobs, adjective order, and so much more.

Plus, in our English in a Minute episodes, give your vocabulary a boost in under a minute.

Find more at bbclearningenglish.com

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28 episodes
weekly
Avg 4 min
English

Episodes 28

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Monday · 6 min
Adjectives ending with -ic and -ical
'Classic' or 'classical'? Learn about adjectives ending in -ic and -ical.
September 21 · 6 min
Strong adjectives
'Terrified', 'fantastic', 'amazing' - learn how to use strong adjectives.
September 14 · 6 min
Male and female job words
Policeman/policewoman, actor/actress - learn about job titles and gender.
September 7 · 6 min
Weather words
The British love to talk about weather! Learn some useful vocabulary about it here.
August 31 · 6 min
Homophones
Mail and male... Learn about words that sound the same but have different spellings.
August 24 · 6 min
Compound nouns
Ice cream, popcorn... Learn about nouns made up of a combination of two words.
August 17 · 6 min
Similar words
We talk about words like 'big' and 'large' and explore the similarities between them.
August 10 · 6 min
Adjective order
We explain the order you put adjectives in when describing a dog!
August 3 · 6 min
Contractions
"I've run a marathon." Look at the shorter form 'I've'. Learn how to use contractions.
July 27 · 6 min
Job suffixes
What's the connection between a teacher, a driver and a presenter? We explain.
July 20 · 6 min
Word stress
How to pronounce the words 'photographer' and 'photograph'? Learn about word stress.
July 13 · 6 min
Compound adjectives
Learn how to use compound adjectives (e.g. low-fat yoghurt, high-quality carbohydrates).
July 6 · 6 min
Lexical sets
Finn and Catherine give you some tips on how to remember new words.
June 29 · 1 min
English in a Minute: Phrases with 'hit'
Learn phrases that are commonly used with ‘hit’
June 22 · 6 min
-ing and -ed adjectives
Boring or bored? Interested or interesting? We'll tell you the right adjective to use.
June 17 · 1 min
English in a Minute: Phrases with 'change'
It's great to see you smiling for a change! Find out more in this podcast.
June 15 · 6 min
Binomials
Learn how to use these short English phrases made of two words that go together.
June 10 · 1 min
English in a Minute: Phrases with 'leave'
Learn four phrases that use the word 'leave'
June 8 · 6 min
Useful chunks of language
Do you like to eat a full English breakfast? Listen to find out how to use this phrase.
June 1 · 1 min
English in a Minute: Phrases with heart
Learn phrases that use the word 'heart'

Showing 1–20 of 28 episodes