BBC World Service | Learning English

Think carefully about the best way to learn your vocabulary. Try to learn at least 5 new words every day, and learn several words that go with them, like articles, prepositions and adjectives. It’s a good idea to make up your own examples of sentences using your new words, as this is what you’ll have to do in an exam!

Tips

Never learn a word in isolation.
When you learn a new word and the prepositions that go with it, write down 2 or 3 sentences of your own using the word.
Try to use your new vocabulary when you speak English.

Test Your Understanding

Try the comprehension quiz

Glossary

in isolation
on its own

a preposition
a word that is used before a noun, pronoun, or gerund to show place, time, direction etc.

an article
a word used before a noun to show whether the noun refers to a particular example of something or to a general example of something. 'The' is called the definite article and 'a' and 'an' are called the indefinite articles.

an adjective
a word that describes a noun or a pronoun

on a daily basis
every day

systematic
carefully organised and thorough

on a regular basis
regularly, at the same time each day, week, month etc., often

acquire
get, gain, have