Close menu

Real Easy English

Easy level

Talking about Halloween

Episode 251031 / 31 Oct 2025

(Photo: Getty)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow the Learning Easy English podcast

Download a free worksheet

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction

Phil and Beth have a real conversation in easy English about Halloween – the scariest night of the year! Learn to talk about fancy dress, trick-or-treating and other spooky things.

Vocabulary

Halloween
a yearly festival on 31st October, also know as All Hallow's Eve, where we celebrate all things scary and spooky

spooky
strange and frightening

fancy dress
a costume that makes you look like someone or something else

dress up
wear a costume

horror film
a film that is frightening

Transcript

Phil
Hello and welcome to another episode of Real Easy English, the podcast where we have everyday conversations in easy English. I'm Phil.
 
Beth
And I'm Beth. You can watch a video version of this podcast on our website, where you can turn on subtitles to read along as you listen. That's at bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Phil
Hi, Beth. How are you?
 
Beth
I'm scared. How are you?
 
Phil
Terrified. It's Halloween today, and that's what we're going to be talking about in this podcast.
 
Beth
Yes, Halloween is a holiday all about scary things like ghosts and monsters. So, yeah. Shall we get started?
 
Phil
Yeah, I think we should... if you're brave enough. OK. Beth, I know you're scared today but do you generally enjoy Halloween?
 
Beth
I really like Halloween because of the dressing up. So, fancy dress – you see all of the children and adults dressing up in fun costumes, scary costumes, in the UK. And I have a lot of memories of dressing up as all sorts of weird and scary things when I was a child.

Phil
I have to ask, what was your favourite costume?
 
Beth
So, my mum made me a pumpkin outfit and it had two holes for my arms and one for my head, and it was very big and puffy. I looked very round, like a big orange pumpkin. And I wore it as a child, but then when I went to university, it was a bit small but I wore it again and I wore a skirt with it. So, it's been used twice for Halloween. It's a good costume.
 
Phil
That's not bad going. I remember once dressing up as a devil. I had little red horns with a bit of elastic stuck on my head.
 
Beth
Yeah, sounds good. Sounds good. Do you do anything to celebrate Halloween these days, now?
 
Phil
Not so much for me – more for my children. They really like it, especially when they were a little bit younger. Where we used to live, lots of houses in the neighbourhood would put pumpkins outside and would decorate, and people would go trick-or-treating. That's where you go up to someone's house in a scary costume and you knock on the door and say, "Trick or treat?" And then, well, if they say treat, they give you a sweet.
 
Beth
Yep.
 
Phil
If they say trick, you're supposed to play a trick on them, but I don't think anyone really does now.
 
Beth
No, I don't think so. I used to love trick-or-treating. We would go round my village and collect a lot of sweets. But now, I don't do any trick-or-treating. The children come to our house and then we give them sweets. But it's always really nice to see people getting in that Halloween spirit. And it's cold, or quite cold, outside in the autumn, and it's... Yeah, it's a nice feeling when it's Halloween. It's a good celebration.
 
Phil
Yeah, it's when really starts to get dark in the evenings and a little bit cold, and it just feels like a different time of year, doesn't it?
 
Beth
So, Halloween in the UK is all about spooky things. Spooky means strange and a bit scary. Is there anything else spooky that you like?
 
Phil
Ooh, I like hearing ghost stories or maybe watching horror films.
 
Beth
Urgh, horror films? I don't like horror films. They make me want to hide behind my sofa with a cushion because I don't like the scary music. You always think, "What's going to happen next?" Or the suspense – just waiting for something bad to happen. No, horror films are not for me.
 
Phil
OK. Let's recap the language that we've heard today, starting with Halloween. And this is a holiday that happens on the 31st of October, and it's all about scary or spooky things.
 
Beth
Yes, spooky means strange or scary.
 
Phil
In the UK, people often wear fancy dress for Halloween, and fancy dress is where you wear something to make you look like someone or something else.
 
Beth
And we can also say dress up. So, for example, when I was younger, I dressed up as a pumpkin for Halloween.
 
Phil
Another thing that happens in the UK at Halloween is trick-or-treating. And that's when children dress up and then go to people's houses to get sweets.
 
Beth
And we also heard horror film. A horror film is a film that is frightening, scary.
 
Phil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Do you have Halloween or a similar celebration in your country? Tell us about it. Email us at learningenglish@bbc.co.uk.
 
Beth
And practise the vocabulary that you've learnt in this episode with our free worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Phil
That's all for now. Bye!
 
Beth
Bye!

Now try this...

Download a free worksheet.

Real Easy English ล่าสุด

ดาวน์โหลดเพื่อทบทวนบทเรียน

ดาวน์โหลดไฟล์พีดีเอฟ
ดาวน์โหลดไฟล์เสียง
Download Transcript

พ็อดแคสท์

Learning Easy English