Thompson 'calls for proper English usage'

Emma Thompson has stressed the importance of speaking proper English.

The actress recently visited her old school where she urged students to forego using slang in order to sound more intelligent because it "makes you sound stupid, and you're not stupid."

"We have to reinvest, I think, in the idea of articulacy as a form of personal human freedom and power," she told the Radio Times.

"There is the necessity to have two languages - one that you use with your mates and the other that you need in any official capacity. Or you're going to sound like a kn*b."

Thompson recently revealed plans to take her 10-year-old daughter on an educational gap year after she finishes primary school.