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Body Parts in English: Vocabulary and Pronunciation (Audio)
Taught by Tom Wilkinson — Cambridge CELTA
Recorded and taught by a team of British and North American English teachers, based in Oxford (UK) and Barcelona (Spain).
In this episode: Katie, Tom and Kim talk about shoulders, ingrowing toenails and Blackberry thumb, while you practise plurals and the silent letters in wrist and thumb.
Check your understanding
Four questions on what is said in the recording. Every answer is in the audio. No sign-up, nothing to buy.
The workbook for this episode has more practice, with answers, and the full transcript. See what’s in the workbook
What you'll hear in this episode
Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19 runs just under 15 minutes and has four parts. Twice, a teacher describes parts of the body for you to name and repeat after the beep, and each time an unscripted conversation follows. Katie and Tom compare injuries, from a painful shoulder to a twisted ankle; Katie and Kim talk about the cold, painted nails, make-up and yoga.
The unit opens with guided practice: you hear a description of a body part, guess the word, then repeat it after the beep. That covers the arm from shoulder down to elbow, wrist and thumb, then the leg from toes up to ankle and knees, with pronunciation notes as you go.
Then Katie and Tom talk about their own aches. Katie says "I've done my shoulder in" and can't work out what she's done to it; Tom explains a run of connected problems in his shoulder, elbow and wrist that he puts down to working on the computer. There's a twisted ankle from jogging, sore knees from squash, and Katie laughing that "We sound like a right pair of old age pensioners." Best of all, Tom introduces "Blackberry thumb" — tendonitis from writing too many messages — and announces he's changing phones, which gets him "iPhone thumb" and Katie's suggestion of "Appleitis, or something."
The second half adds bones, muscles, bottom, forehead, cheeks, lips, nails and brain. Katie then talks to Kim, sitting outside on metal chairs in the cold. Kim agrees "It is getting a little bit chilly, yeah" and says "I'm starting to feel it in my bones actually." They compare toenails, lip balm, blusher and yoga, and Katie asks whether using your brain will help her lose weight.
Quick facts
Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19, Body Parts, is a free English vocabulary lesson at intermediate level (B1). It runs 14 minutes 46 seconds and teaches fifteen words for parts of the body, with two unscripted conversations to hear them in use. The workbook, with the full transcript, glossary and three exercises, is part of the €39 all-in-one pack.
| Episode | 2.19 – Body Parts |
| Pack | Vocabulary and Pronunciation 2 |
| Level | 2 |
| Duration | 14 minutes 46 seconds |
| Workbook | Included in the all-in-one pack |
What you'll learn
Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19 teaches fifteen everyday words for parts of the body, including shoulder, elbow, wrist, thumb, ankle, knee, forehead and cheek, and how to say them. You practise singular and plural forms, hear that wrist begins with an /r/ sound and that the b in thumb is silent, and then follow the same words at natural speed in two unscripted conversations.
The pronunciation focus is the gap between spelling and sound. You're warned that wrist is spelled with a w but begins with /r/ and that the final b in thumb is silent. Elbow gets a note on stress: it falls on the first syllable, not the second.
The plurals matter too, because most of these words come in twos and fives. You'll hear and repeat the singular and plural side by side — a toe and toes, a knee and knees, a bone and bones — which trains the /z/ and /s/ endings without a grammar lecture.
The conversations then show you the words doing real work. Notice how often body-part vocabulary appears with possessives: broke his wrist, twisted my ankle, hurting my shoulders. Notice the useful phrase done my shoulder in for an injury you can't explain, and how Kim uses toning about muscles. You'll also pick up the words that cluster around these nouns: sprained, tendonitis, toenail, lipstick, lip balm, blusher. Both conversations are full of hesitation and self-correction, so this is honest practice for following speech that hasn't been tidied up.
Vocabulary from the workbook
The glossary gives every word with its pronunciation and a plain definition. A few of them:
- wrist /rɪst/ (noun) – the part between the bottom of your arm and your hand. The word Katie opens the first conversation with.
- thumb /θʌm/ (noun) – you have four fingers on each hand and one thumb. The source of Tom's Blackberry problem.
- ankle /æŋkəl/ (noun) – the end of your leg between your leg and your foot. Twisted while jogging.
- bone /bəʊn/ (noun) – hard white sticks in your body that keep everything together. What Kim feels the cold in.
- forehead /ɔːhed/ (noun) – the area above your eyes and before your hair. The only place Katie puts cream.
- brain /breɪn/ (noun) – the thing inside you head that thinks and controls your whole body. Katie's "big muscle in my head".
Also included: elbow, shoulder, knee, toe, muscle, bottom, nail, cheek and lip.
What's in the workbook
The workbook carries the full script of the guided practice and both conversations, so you can read along and check anything you missed. After the glossary there are three exercises.
Practice 1 approaches the vocabulary from an unusual angle: which parts of the body does each item of clothing cover? Boots, gloves, a t-shirt, trousers and a sweater — and the answers are more generous than you might expect, since a sweater covers shoulders and elbows.
Practice 2 is a five-sentence gap-fill using everyday contexts: painted nails and red lipstick, a hot forehead, a heavy backpack, big muscles from the gym, and kissing on the cheek in Spain.
Practice 3 is the pronunciation work. First you identify the silent letter in wrist, muscle and thumb. Then you match words with the same underlined sound: shoulder, nail and lip against toe, brain and wrist. Full answers are supplied at the back.
The workbook comes with the complete Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which covers every episode across all levels for €39.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Common questions
Who is speaking in this episode?
Three people speak in the conversations of Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19: Katie talks with Tom in the first and with Kim in the second. The guided practice and repetition sections are led by a single voice.
Is the audio scripted?
The conversations in Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19 are unscripted, so you hear real hesitation, laughter and interruption from Katie, Tom and Kim. Only the teaching sections, which set up the tasks and give the answers, are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.
What level do I need to be?
Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19 is a Level 2 episode, which is intermediate (B1). The vocabulary is concrete and the definitions are simple, but the two conversations run at natural speed.
Can I use the audio without the workbook?
The audio for Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19 is free and works on its own: you can guess each word and repeat it with nothing in front of you. The workbook, part of the €39 all-in-one pack, adds the transcript, the glossary with pronunciation and three practice exercises with answers.
How long is the episode?
Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation 2.19 runs 14 minutes 46 seconds. In that time it covers fifteen words for parts of the body, the pronunciation work on each one and two unscripted conversations.
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