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Talking about birthdays

Episode 260220 / 20 Feb 2026

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Phil and Beth have a real conversation in easy English about birthdays – the day each year that you celebrate when you were born. Learn to talk about throwing parties, blowing out candles and making wishes.

Vocabulary

party
event where people get together to celebrate something

have/throw a party
organise a party

blow out a candle
push air out of your mouth to stop a candle burning

make a wish
think of something that you want to happen in the future

milestone birthday
birthday with an important number, usually celebrating a decade, like 30 or 40, or a culturally significant birthday, like 21

Transcript

Phil
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. We're back with another easy conversation. I'm Phil.
 
Beth
And I'm Beth. You can watch a video version of this podcast on our website. That's at bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Phil
Hi Beth. When's your birthday?
 
Beth
My birthday is in February, which is a very good month, I think.
 
Phil
Yes. Yeah.
 
Beth
When's your birthday?
 
Phil
Mine's in December. So, that's two winter birthdays.
 
Beth
OK. Yeah, we do. We do – no summer birthdays.
 
Phil
Well, today we're talking about birthdays. And that's the time of year that you celebrate, or don't celebrate, the day when you were born.
 
Beth
Yes, that's right. Do you celebrate your birthday normally, Phil?
 
Phil
I do – not in a big, massive way. But yeah, I do. Every year I do something. I usually go out to eat on my birthday.
 
Beth
OK.
 
Phil
That's fairly normal. But I don't have a massive party. What about you?
 
Beth
No. I'm the same, really. A lot of my family have birthdays in February, so we tend to have one big family meal. That's a sort of celebration for all the birthdays.
 
Phil
That's pretty nice.
 
Beth
Yeah, it's really nice. And I don't have aparty, but I did when I was a child. Birthday parties as a child, with cake and blowing outcandles, singing Happy Birthday – these are very big birthday traditions when you're young, aren't they?
 
Phil
Yeah, when you have all your friends in your house, running around causing chaos.
 
Beth
Yes. And cake is very important!
 
Phil
I mean, yes. What is a birthday without some cake? With candles on the top, of course. One candle for every year – at least when you're a child, one candle for every year. I don't do that anymore.
 
Beth
And when you have the candles on your cake, you need to blow them out and... make a wish.
 
Phil
Yes, but don't tell anyone the wish. Otherwise, it won't come true.

Beth
It's very, very true. So, there are certain ages, like 18, 21, 30, 40 – these are big birthdays and we call them milestone birthdays. How do you feel about milestone birthdays? Because I know someone who really doesn't like them. They feel like they're getting older. To me, it doesn't matter. What do you think about them?
 
Phil
I think the same. I think they haven't bothered me yet. The only thing is that the next one I can see is a really big, scary, terrifying one, so maybe when I get there, I'll be a little bit more worried. But no, I don't. It doesn't bother me. I think getting older is a good thing. It's what we do.
 
Beth
It's something... It's something that we all have to do. We all grow older, so there's nothing we can do to change it.
 
Phil
And life is good. As you get older, life changes and gets better, so...
 
Beth
Yeah, true. Have you had any strange birthdays?
 
Phil
Well, there was one that was a bit different to all the others. I got married.
 
Beth
What?? You got married on your birthday?
 
Phil
I got married on my 24th birthday.
 
Beth
So, your birthday is also your wedding anniversary?
 
Phil
It is. It is.
 
Beth
That means you can't forget your wedding anniversary.
 
Phil
No, no. I can never forget it! OK. Let's recap some of the vocabulary that we used during this conversation, starting with party, which is when you get people you know together to celebrate something. You can have aparty. And another way of saying to organise a party is to throw aparty.
 
Beth
And often at a party, you have a cake. If you blow outthe candles on a cake, you blow air from your mouth to stop the flames on the candles, like this.
 
Phil
After you do this, you might make a wish, which is when you think of something that you want to happen in the future.
 
Beth
We also talked about milestone birthdays, which is a birthday with an important number. These often end with zero, like 30 or 40, but they can also be a birthday that has cultural significance – for example, 21.
 
Phil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Why not try the worksheet on our website to test yourself? And that's bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Beth
We'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English. Goodbye for now!
 
Phil
Bye!

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