Learning English

Women and alcohol

A worldwide study into women's drinking habits has been carried out - Sian and Neil discuss the results.

Language challenge

In this News Review, Neil and Sian talk about alcohol. When we describe someone as 'teetotal' what do we mean?

A) They drink too much alcohol
B) They never drink alcohol
C) They drink a lot of tea

Watch the video and complete the activity

The story

A global study of drinking habits has shown that women have nearly caught up with men in terms of the amount of alcohol they consume.

An analysis of four million people born between 1891 and 2001 found that women's drinking has increased due to a number of reasons, including falling prices and successful marketing.

The study has concluded that public health efforts must focus more on women.

Dr Tim Slade - The University of New South Wales, Australia 

Increased exposure to alcohol also increases the physical and mental health risks associated with drinking too much. And so that's something that we really need to continue to look at and do something about.

Key words and phrases

out-drinking
drinking more than another person

wine o'clock
(humorous) an appropriate time of day to start drinking wine

knocking back
drinking something quickly or in large amounts, particularly alcohol

boozer
person who drinks a lot of alcohol

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode here. 

You can also learn other words relating to booze, in this epsiode of 6 Minute English. 

Language challenge - answer

The correct answer is B) a person who is 'teetotal' never drinks alcohol.

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Lingohack - our video which teaches you words from the news using the latest BBC World News bulletins.