BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

This is a download from BBC Learning English. To find out more, visit our website.

Six-Minute Vocabulary from BBC LearningEnglish.com

Hello and welcome to six-minute vocabulary. I'm Catherine and I'm Neil.

Neil, like your hat. Thank you very much. It's great. It's cold outside, so I thought it would

be sensible to wear a woolly hat. Yes. My ears are very sensitive to the cold.

I've noticed your ears looking a little bit red of a morning, occasionally, Neil.

And the words sensible and sensitive are good examples of today's topic.

The two words look and sound similar, but they have very different meanings.

And in this programme we're going to talk about more pairs of words that people sometimes

get mixed up.

Now, let's hear about Mike.

He was in a shop yesterday when he made a mistake.

Think about this question while you listen. What mistake did Mike make in the shop?

Mike felt bored.

He was watching a boring film about plants in the desert.

I know. I'll make a cake, he thought. "'We'll have it for dessert.'

The recipe looked easy, just a few ingredients.

But when Mike checked the contents of his cupboard,

there wasn't any sugar.

He went to the shop and bought some.

"'The cake looked great. But it tasted horrible. Mike checked the receipt. He'd bought salt by mistake. So we asked you what mistake did Mike make in the shop?

...