Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and

phrases especially written for people learning English.

On this program, we will answer a listener's question about the word regimen.

Then we complete our series on academic writing,

followed by a story about a Museum of Laughter in Croatia.

Then we conclude our American story,

The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe.

But first, this week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Marco in Italy.

Here is Marco's question.

Dear teacher, I want to understand more Here is Marco's question.

Dear teacher, I want to understand more when to use the word regimen for exercise or other actions.

Thank you.

I'm happy to answer this question, Marco. A regimen is usual and repeated action, especially in training.

In healthcare, it is a systematic plan to improve a person's health. A training regimen, for example, can include exercises people can do to help them get the results they want.

For example, a long-distance runner's regimen might include runs of 10 or 20 kilometers every week.

Note that we often put another noun before the word regimen to help identify it more clearly.

These are called attributive nouns.

They act similarly to adjectives, as in the following examples.

A weightlifting regimen, a workout regimen, a running regimen, a walking regimen, a stretching regimen.

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