If you're looking to improve your vocabulary in English, you've come to the right place. With Plain English, you'll have plenty of opportunities to learn new words and add them to your active vocabulary.
Here is how you'll expand your vocabulary with Plain English:
Listen to Stories about a wide variety of topics, getting exposure to new ideas, new concepts, and new words
Learn the most common English expressions and phrasal verbs
Practice using the words you learn and get human feedback on what you write
See translations of key words and phrases from English to 9 languages
Do an interactive vocabulary exercise with each Story
Learn informal words and phrases with the Casual Dictionary
Stories
The best way to improve your vocabulary is to listen to the Stories. Stories are short audio lessons about current events and trending topics.
✅ Stories are available to any registered user of Plain English
Topics include current events, business, politics, art, health, science, music & movies, travel, and more:
Because the topics are so varied, you'll get exposure to a wide variety of new words. Some will be technical and specific, while others will be versatile words you can use everyday.
The more you listen, the more words you'll recognize and learn. Study the ones that are most useful based on your goals.
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Expressions
Expressions are an important way to communicate in English. Simply put, expressions are combinations of words that, together, have a specific meaning.
Plain English includes a library of lessons about how to use common English Expressions and phrasal verbs.
✅ Expressions are available to any registered user of Plain English
Having a good English vocabulary means not only knowing a lot of words, but also how to combine words to communicate your ideas. And that's why Expressions are an important part of Plain English.
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Feedback on your writing
It's one thing to learn words in a lesson. But it's better to practice using the words you use. At Plain English, you can write example sentences and receive personal, human feedback on your writing.
✅ Personal feedback is available to members at the Plus+ level
After every Expression, Toolkit Workshop, and Casual Dictionary entry, members can write their own sentences using what they learned. Then, they'll get personalized feedback and advice for how to improve.
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Translations in transcripts
If you listen to Plain English Stories and read the transcripts, you'll probably encounter unfamiliar words. When that happens, you may switch your attention to look up the definition or you may try to guess the meaning based on the context.
But Plain English transcripts have translations into 9 languages, built right into the text:
Just hover your mouse over a highlighted word (or tap on mobile) to see the translation instantly.
Translations are available into Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, German, Polish, and Turkish.
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Vocabulary exercise
Plain English Stories come with a set of interactive exercises to help you be an active learner.
One exercise focuses specifically on vocabulary. In this exercise, we remove some of the hardest words from the lesson and put them beside a paragraph. Your job is to use the context of the paragraph to drag the words into the correct spot:
With hundreds of stories in our archive, you'll have plenty of opportunities to practice finding the right place for these difficult words in English.
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Casual Dictionary
The Casual Dictionary includes definitions and examples of informal words and phrases in English.
✅ The Casual Dictionary is available to any registered user of Plain English
In the Casual Dictionary, you'll see the definition of a word, how to use it, and example sentences. You also have the opportunity to practice using what you learn and get feedback.
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