Big Brother has set the housemates a pronunciation test as part of this week's Finishing School shopping task.

They were called to the sofas for an elocution lesson on the plasma screen this afternoon, including such phrases as "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" and "How now, Brown Cow."

After answering the call for "one well-spoken housemate" to go to the diary room, Jonty read a laminate to the assembled group. "Housemates, it is time to put your pronunciation into practice and learn to become well spoken....Housemates have been provided with three sentences which they must learn and practice."

He went on to reveal that Big Brother had provided two elocution handbooks featuring a list of words and sentences with their correct pronunciation. The group was given one hour to learn them before being tested one by one in the diary room. If three or more housemates fail to pronounce the words correctly, they will incur one fail towards this week's shopping task.

"It's a lot of wordage," remarked Tracey, as Big Brother announced the beginning of their hour of practice time.

Carole immediately suggested that three housemates sit with herself and Kara-Louise, while another two accompany Jonty and Ziggy into the garden.

"This looks hard, it looks hard," grumbled Brian, as he sat with Liam, Ziggy and Jonty on the smoker's bench.

Launching enthusiastically into his first lesson, Jonty declared: "How now, Brown Cow. The first thing to remember with that one is that there is an 'h' sound at the beginning of it."