Learners often choose a word that is correct in the dictionary but wrong with its partner. They say "a strong rain" because their own language says it that way, or "I'm very starving" because "very" works everywhere in their language. A British listener understands, but it sounds odd. In this episode: • Tea and the kitchen • Weather partners • Adverb + adjective: fast asleep, wide awake • Family life word partners • SCENE: A RAINY SUNDAY (an invented household) • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key phrases from this episode: put the kettle on — boil water for tea (very common at home) a cup of tea — the full, neutral phrase a quick cuppa — a fast cup of tea (casual); cuppa (KUP-uh) strong tea — tea with a lot of flavour, often brewed for a long time weak tea, weak coffee — with little flavour, or lots of milk milky coffee — coffee with lots of milk I'll put the kettle on — I'll make some tea. heavy rain — a lot of rain it's pouring down — it's raining very hard (casual) bitterly cold — extremely cold; bitterly (BIT-uh-lee) boiling hot — extremely hot (casual) a light shower — a short, gentle bit of rain a strong wind — a lot of wind fast asleep — deeply asleep wide awake — completely awake absolutely starving — extremely hungry (casual) completely knackered — extremely tired; knackered (NAK-uhd) (casual) absolutely freezing — extremely cold highly unlikely — very improbable (neutral) a quick word — a short conversation; "Can I have a quick word?" (neutral, polite) a big shop — a large food shop for the week the school run — taking the kids to school and picking them up Real British English: the complete spoken course for learners worldwide — modern British accent, everyday grammar, phrasal verbs, idioms, slang, he/she/it for things, and real conversations at home. Listen, repeat out loud, then take the 52-question quiz. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair.