What causes hearing loss?

6 Minute English

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we get older, our hearing naturally gets worse. But what are the causes of this decline? And is there anything we can do to prevent it? Neil and Georgie discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

Find a full transcript, worksheet and interactive quiz for this episode at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2025/ep-250911

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you know someone who is starting to learn English?
0:04.0	We have a new easy video series just for them, the London Letter Challenge.
0:11.1	Three teams race around London to find eight letters, which will take them to the winning crowns.
0:18.1	Watch the series on our websites now, BBClearningEnglish.com.
0:27.2	Six Minute English from BBC learningenglish.com.
0:34.5	Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
0:39.0	And I'm Georgie. As we get older, many of us notice our sense of hearing getting worse.
0:44.4	Maybe we need to concentrate harder or ask people to speak more loudly. Has that happened to you, Neil?
0:50.0	Not really. A while ago, I thought maybe my ears were getting worse, but I had a check-up
0:56.1	and everything was fine, thankfully.
0:57.7	Oh, that's great. In the UK alone, hearing loss affects 18 million people, and that number
1:04.0	is increasing. In this program, we'll discover why we lose hearing with age, and as usual,
1:09.8	learn some useful new vocabulary.
1:11.8	And you can also find a transcript of this episode on our website, BBClearningEnglish.com.
1:17.3	But now listen up, Georgie, because I have a question for you.
1:20.9	Did you know that the three smallest bones in the human body, the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup,
1:27.0	are all located in the ear,
1:29.4	but which one of those is the smallest? Is it A, the hammer, B, the anvil, or C, the stirrup
1:36.4	bone?
1:37.4	That one's a difficult one. I'm going to say the anvil bone.
1:41.8	Okay, well we'll find out the answer later on.
1:44.9	To understand why our hearing gets worse with age,
	...

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