Media & Entertainment
Media & Entertainment — 20 high-frequency words, with pronunciation, collocations, word traps and four interactive exercises.
📌 Contents
🎯 Lesson goal
Talk about films, series, news and social media with exam-level vocabulary 🎬. You will learn to write a detailed review (gripping, predictable, overrated) and to use news correctly: it is singular and uncountable, however plural it looks. 🚀
🗂️ Word Bank
Tap 🔊 to hear the British pronunciation. The IPA transcription is under each word.
📖 Words in context
Reviewing without saying “nice” · tap a highlighted word to hear it.
We watched the new series on Friday and ended up deciding to binge-watch all eight episodes. The setting — a small coastal town in the 1980s — is beautiful, the cast is excellent, and the first three episodes are genuinely gripping.
Then something goes wrong. The plot loses direction, the main character stops making sense, and the final episode is so predictable that my sister guessed the ending after twenty minutes. Critics loved it anyway: every review gave five stars. I suspect it is simply overrated.
What annoyed me more was the coverage afterwards. One paper ran a headline about the lead actor's private life that had nothing to do with the show. It was openly biased, and clearly not a reliable source. We watched the whole thing with subtitles, though — my English improved more than my mood.
🔗 Collocations & chunks
Words travel in groups: learn the whole chunk, not just one word.
| Chunk / collocation | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| be based on a true story | to follow real events | The film is based on a true story. |
| get rave reviews | to get very positive reviews | The album got rave reviews. |
| a box-office hit | a film that earns lots of money | It was a box-office hit. |
| the plot twist | a sudden, surprising turn in the story | The plot twist saves the film. |
| go viral | to spread very fast online | The clip went viral in hours. |
| break the news | to be the first to report it | The BBC broke the news at six. |
⚠️ Word traps to avoid
| English word | Real meaning ✅ | Watch out ❌ |
|---|---|---|
| news | reports of recent events (singular!) | «the news is good», mai «the news are» |
| comics | cartoon stories in picture form | not funny performers: those are comedians |
| romance | a love story; a romantic genre | not any long book: that is a novel |
| editor | the person in charge of a newspaper’s content | not the company that publishes books: that is a publisher |
🎚️ Register: when to use them
| Expression | Register | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| It's rubbish. | very informal (UK) | with friends, a blunt opinion |
| It wasn't really my thing. | informal but polite | to criticise without offending |
| I found it rather disappointing. | neutral to formal | written reviews, exams |
| The film fails to live up to expectations. | formal / critical | articles and evaluative texts |
🚫 Common mistakes to avoid
| Mistake ❌ | Correct ✅ |
|---|---|
| The news are terrible today. | The news is terrible today. |
| I saw a beautiful romance by Austen. | I read a beautiful novel by Austen. |
| This film is very interesting for me. | I find this film very interesting. |
| I watched the second serie. | I watched the second season. |
🎮 Vocabulary gym
Four ways to practise the same 20 words. Your progress is saved on this device.
Tap the card to flip it.
Tap an English word, then its meaning. Eight pairs per round.
Complete the ten sentences with the right word. The clue under each sentence will help you.
- The falls apart in the last episode.💡 the series of events in a story
- The main is completely unlikeable.💡 a person in a story or film
- The is extraordinary.💡 all the actors in a film or show
- The is 1970s Naples.💡 the place and time where a story happens
- I watch everything with English .💡 written words on screen showing what people say
- The final lasts ninety minutes.💡 one part of a TV series
- The second is far better.💡 a group of episodes released together
- We the whole thing in a weekend.💡 to watch many episodes in one go
- The first hour is absolutely .💡 so exciting that you can’t stop watching
- The ending was horribly .💡 easy to guess before it happens