Build your English vocabulary in six minutes. Every Monday join two of our presenters and hear about different ways to develop your vocabulary knowledge and skills.
Large numbers
How many stars are there in the universe? Learn how to say big numbers in English.
2/26/2024 • 6 minutes, 14 seconds
Suffixes: -tian, -sion and -tion
Have we got your attention? Listen and learn how to use suffixes -tian, -sion and -tion.
2/19/2024 • 6 minutes, 43 seconds
Synonyms
Learn about words that have the same or similar meanings
2/12/2024 • 6 minutes, 31 seconds
Discourse Markers: Interjections
Do you know your ouch! from your ugh!? These words are called interjections.
2/5/2024 • 6 minutes, 34 seconds
Commonly misspelled words
Weird or wierd? English spelling is fascinating – but it's not always straightforward!
1/29/2024 • 5 minutes, 58 seconds
Linking words
Listen to Angela talk about her lucky shark escape and learn some linking words.
1/9/2024 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Words with more than one spelling
Are you unsure whether it’s disc or disk, sympathise or sympathize, learnt or learned?
1/1/2024 • 6 minutes, 21 seconds
Acronyms
Listen to Peter and Catherine talking about acronyms like NASA and FIFA in this podcast.
12/25/2023 • 6 minutes, 18 seconds
Antonyms
Finn and Catherine discuss antonyms in 6 minute Vocabulary.
12/19/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Suffixes: -ness & -ity
Listen to Neil and Catherine talk about words with the suffixes -ness and -ity.
12/11/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Discourse markers: showing attitude
fortunately, obviously, seriously, ideally.
12/5/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Suffixes: -ment, -ance, -ence
ExciteMENT, performANCE, differENCE - how suffixes turn verbs and adjectives into nouns.
11/27/2023 • 6 minutes, 15 seconds
Someone, somewhere, anywhere...
Learn how to use these very useful pronouns with 'some' and 'any'.
11/20/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Irregular verbs
Choose, chose, chosen... We talk about verbs that don't follow the -ed pattern.
11/13/2023 • 6 minutes, 7 seconds
Reporting verbs
Learn about verbs that we use when we talk about what someone else has said.
11/7/2023 • 6 minutes, 20 seconds
False friends
Embarrassed - or pregnant? Words you think you know but mean something else in English.
10/30/2023 • 6 minutes, 13 seconds
Words with 'ough'
Cough, thought, enough, although: Learn how to pronounce words with 'ough'.
10/23/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Easily confused words
Boring or bored? Learn about words that look similar but have very different meaning.
10/16/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Suffixes: -less and -free
Is this a smoke-free or a smokeless workplace? Learn the difference!
10/9/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Prefixes de, dis, dys
Do you suffer from dyspepsia? Could a detox diet help? Learn about prefixes.
10/2/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Ordinal numbers
What's the date today? And do you know how to say it?
9/25/2023 • 6 minutes, 21 seconds
Short spoken forms
Gonna, wanna, dunno, whatcha… are these really English words? Who uses them and why?
9/18/2023 • 6 minutes, 7 seconds
Uncountable nouns
What is more important in life: knowledge, money or happiness?
9/11/2023 • 6 minutes, 21 seconds
Time expression with in, on and at
Learn how to use time expression with the preposition in, on and at
9/4/2023 • 6 minutes, 21 seconds
Hyphenation
Find out why we write some phrases with hyphens but not others.
8/25/2023 • 6 minutes, 18 seconds
Words with double letters
Catherine and Finn talk about spelling words with double letters in 6 Minute Vocabulary.
8/21/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Pronouncing verbs and nouns
Learn how to pronounce verbs and nouns with Neil and Catherine.
8/14/2023 • 6 minutes, 13 seconds
British and American English
Catherine and Doug discuss British and American English
8/8/2023 • 6 minutes, 7 seconds
Business jargon
Can you think out of the box or take the helicopter view at work? Learn business jargon.
7/31/2023 • 6 minutes, 49 seconds
How to pronounce words that start with 'c'.
'c' or 's'? Learn how to spell words that begin with a /s/ sound.
7/24/2023 • 6 minutes, 23 seconds
Phrasal verbs and context
When talking about moving in, moving out and moving on, what do we mean? We explain.
7/17/2023 • 6 minutes, 12 seconds
re, pre and pro
Do you recycle your rubbish? Do you buy prepacked food? Are you proactive?
7/10/2023 • 6 minutes, 12 seconds
Silent letters
How do you pronounce the words night and knight?
7/3/2023 • 6 minutes, 43 seconds
Onomatopoeia
Learn about words that sound like the thing they describe.
6/26/2023 • 6 minutes, 16 seconds
Multi-word verbs
Do you ever 'meet up with' your friend in the park? We talk about multi-word verbs.
6/19/2023 • 6 minutes, 2 seconds
Adjectives ending with -ic and -ical
We explain how some adjectives end in either -ic or -ical, depending on their meaning.
6/12/2023 • 6 minutes, 12 seconds
Strong adjectives
Listen to our fantastic, wonderful programme about strong adjectives.
6/6/2023 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Male and female job words
How words change depending on whether a man or a woman is doing the job.
5/29/2023 • 6 minutes, 5 seconds
New words
Rob and Catherine are here to help you update your language!
5/22/2023 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Weather words
British people love to talk about weather! Learn some useful vocabulary about it here.
5/15/2023 • 5 minutes, 51 seconds
Homophones
Learn about words that sound the same but have different meanings
5/9/2023 • 6 minutes, 8 seconds
Compound nouns
Ice cream, popcorn... Learn about nouns made up of a combination of two words.
5/2/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Adjective order
We explain the order you put adjectives in when describing a dog!
4/24/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Contractions
Finn and Feifei help you learn this important part of speaking and writing, in English.
4/17/2023 • 6 minutes, 3 seconds
Job suffixes
What's the connection between a teacher, a driver or a presenter?
4/3/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Word stress
Do you know how to pronounce the words photographer and photograph? We can help you.
3/27/2023 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Compound adjectives
Learn how to use compound adjectives (e.g. low-fat yoghurt, high-quality carbohydrates).
3/20/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Lexical sets
Finn and Catherine give you some tips on how to remember new words.
3/13/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
-ing and -ed adjectives
Interested or interesting? Which adjective do you use? We discuss -ing and -ed adjectives
3/6/2023 • 6 minutes, 6 seconds
Binomials: phrases made of two words
Do you want some cheap and cheerful tips to improve your English? Listen to learn more.
2/27/2023 • 6 minutes, 2 seconds
Useful chunks of language
Do you like to eat a full English breakfast? Listen to find out how to use this phrase.
2/20/2023 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Prefixes: un-, in- and dis-
Learn some prefixes which we hope won't make you feel unhappy.
2/20/2023 • 6 minutes, 3 seconds
Adjectives and adverbs
Fashionable? Fashionably? We teach you adjectives and adverbs.
2/6/2023 • 6 minutes, 5 seconds
Suffixes
Finn and Alice look at a very important part of word building – suffixes.
1/30/2023 • 6 minutes, 12 seconds
Academic Vocabulary
Do you have to write academic texts and essays? We give you some tips on how to do it.
1/23/2023 • 6 minutes, 18 seconds
Talk like Shakespeare
Learn some idioms from 'the Bard' which are in common use today.
1/16/2023 • 6 minutes, 16 seconds
More irregular verbs
Write, wrote, written. Speak, spoke, spoken - learn more about irregular verbs.
1/9/2023 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Eponyms as nouns and verbs
To google, to hoover... Learn about words that have come from commercial products.
12/30/2022 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Adjectives from names
We discuss a group of adjectives that are made from the names of famous people.
12/26/2022 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Large numbers
How many stars are there in the universe? Learn how to say big numbers in English.
12/19/2022 • 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Suffixes: -tian, -sion and -tion
Have we got your attention? Listen and learn how to use suffixes -tian, -sion and -tion.
12/12/2022 • 6 minutes, 20 seconds
Synonyms
Learn about synonyms - words that have the same or similar meaning.
12/5/2022 • 6 minutes, 12 seconds
Discourse Markers: Interjections
Do you know your ouch! from your ugh!? These words are called interjections.
11/28/2022 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Commonly misspelled words
Weird or weird? English spelling is fascinating – but it's not always straightforward!
11/21/2022 • 5 minutes, 58 seconds
Linking words
Listen to Angela talk about her lucky shark escape and learn some linking words.
11/14/2022 • 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Words with more than one spelling
Disk or disc? Confused about which one to use? Finn and Catherine talk about spelling.
11/7/2022 • 6 minutes, 21 seconds
Acronyms
Listen to Peter and Catherine talking about acronyms like NASA and FIFA in this podcast.
10/31/2022 • 6 minutes, 18 seconds
Antonyms
A good way of building vocabulary in English is to learn words with opposite meanings.