An Inspector Calls Vocabulary Bank

Examiners reward students who write about An Inspector Calls with precise, ambitious vocabulary. Words such as callous, remorse, deference and zeitgeist let you say more about Priestley's characters and message in fewer words, which helps you reach the higher mark bands for GCSE English Literature.

Start in the Word bank tab. Read each word, its word type, its meaning and an example sentence about the play. Tick Learned when you are confident with a word. Use the Flashcards tab to test yourself. You can show the word first and recall the meaning, or show the meaning first and recall the word. Choose "Only words I'm still learning" to focus on the ones that have not stuck yet. The Quiz gives you ten questions. 

Some give you a meaning and some give you a sentence about the play with a gap, so you learn how each word works in an essay as well as what it means. The last tab is where the real learning happens. Write your own sentence using the word about a character such as Mr Birling, Sheila or the Inspector, or a theme such as social responsibility, class or gender, then compare it with Mrs Wear's example. Rote learning rarely sticks. Using a word to say something about the play does. The vocabulary bank is free and was written by Mrs Wear, a qualified English teacher with over ten years of experience. For more help with the play, take the free An Inspector Calls Revision course on Stream English.