Clean, neat and tidy are three words with similar meanings.

Do you know when to use each word?

Here are some examples of the words being used:

“You ask me to keep my room clean, and it is clean!”

“But she never tidies up!”

“I just like things to be neat and tidy.”

These lines are all spoken by the two guests in this week’s programme: Tidy Ted and his daughter Messy Bessy.

As you can guess from their names, Ted and Bessy’s ideas about tidiness are not the same, which often leads to arguments about cleaning their house.

But can Finn and Yang Li help them sort out their problems? Listen to the programme to find out.

Don’t forget, if you have a question about English, email it to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. We may answer it on this programme.

Glossary

tidiness （名）整潔，整齊

sort out 化解