Welcome to Speak English Now podcast with your host Georgiana, the podcast that will help you to speak English fluently with no grammar and no textbooks.

In this episode, I'd like to focus on the passive vocabulary.

There are two kinds of vocabularies that we all acquire in time,

no matter whether it's your native language or a foreign language. The first and more obvious one

is the active vocabulary. These are the words we use when we speak or write. On the other hand,

there's the passive vocabulary, and these are all the words we understand when we read or listen.

Let me make myself clear. You fully understand the meaning of these words. You don't just guess their meaning when you read or listen.

However, you can't use them in a conversation.

It's complicated to use passive vocabulary when you speak,

because understanding the words isn't enough.

You'll need to listen and read those words several times before they

become part of your active vocabulary. At this point, you may think that using passive vocabulary

is only difficult when you're trying to speak in English. But unfortunately, you'll find the same difficulty when using your

mother tongue. Let me give you an example. Let's say that you are reading an article about the

economic situation of a country. You fully understand the whole article. But if you had to speak

about this topic, I'm convinced that you

would use words that you are more familiar with. If you had to talk about the economic

situation of a country, you would use the active vocabulary and not the passive one. When it

comes to English, it's the same. You can only use about 20% of the

vocabulary you've learned. So if you know 1,000 words, you will probably use only 200 words.

The best way to activate your passive vocabulary is by repetition. If you listen to the same

audios many times, you will be able to transform passive vocabulary into the active vocabulary.

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