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Hi, Everyone!

I\\u2019m Georgiana, founder of\\xa0SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help YOU speak English fluently.

In this episode:

I\\u2019ll talk about passive vocabulary, and I\\u2019ll focus on the difference between\\xa0active and passive vocabulary.
After that, we\\u2019ll simulate a conversation with the Question & Answer technique.

OK, let\\u2019s start!

Like I\\u2019ve just mentioned earlier, in this episode, I\\u2019d like to focus on the passive vocabulary.

There are two kinds of vocabularies that we all acquire in time, no matter whether it\\u2019s your native language or a foreign language.

The first and more obvious one is the\\xa0active vocabulary. These are the words we use when we speak or write.

On the other hand, there\\u2019s\\xa0passive 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\\u2019t just guess their meaning when you\\xa0read or listen. However, you can\\u2019t use them in a conversation.

It\\u2019s complicated to use passive vocabulary when you speak because understanding the words just isn\\u2019t enough. You\\u2019ll need to listen and read these 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\\u2019re trying to speak in English, but unfortunately, you\\u2019ll find the same difficulty when using your mother tongue.

Let me give you an example:

Let\\u2019s say that you\\u2019re 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\\u2019m convinced that you\\u2019d use words that you\\u2019re more familiar with. If you had to talk about the economic situation of a country, you\\u2019d use the active vocabulary and not the passive one.

When it comes to English, it\\u2019s the same. You can only use about 20% of all the vocabulary you\\u2019ve learned. So, if you know 1000 words, you\\u2019ll probably use only 200 words.

The best way to\\xa0activate your passive vocabulary\\xa0is by\\xa0repetition. If you listen to the same audios many times, you\\u2019ll be able to transform passive vocabulary into active vocabulary.

We tend to use the words we listen to more. For example, the verbs to be, to go or objects like car, paper, etc. These words are so common that they have become part of your active vocabulary from the very beginning.

(END OF THE EXTRACT).
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