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Talking about games

Episode 250411 / 11 Apr 2025

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Beth and Georgie have a real conversation in easy English about the games they like to play. Learn to talk about the games you enjoy.

Vocabulary

board game
a game where players move pieces around a flat surface, such as chess

quiz
a game where you answer questions

cheat
be dishonest when playing a game. You can also call someone a cheat if they're being dishonest.

goody-goody
someone who likes to follow the rules when playing a game

Transcript

Beth
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Beth.

Georgie
And I'm Georgie. You can find a video version of this podcast and a worksheet to help you learn on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth
So, how is your week going, Georgie?

Georgie
It's going well. It's only Monday. I'm already quite tired. How about you, Beth?

Beth
I'm OK. I'm not tired yet, but give me till this afternoon.

Georgie
So, Beth, what are we talking about today?

Beth
Today we're going to talk about games. The kind of games we like playing. Maybe games we don't like as much. So, shall we start the conversation?

Georgie
Yes, let's get started! So, Beth, do you enjoy games?

Beth
It depends on the kind of games. I think if it's something physical where you're, I don't know, running around a park or being silly, sporty things, those kind of fun games I enjoy. But if it's like board games or card games, honestly, I don't really like them. What about you?

Georgie
I do like games. I also like sporty games. We did that in the park, didn't we? With our team?

Beth
We did, we did.

Georgie
Which was really fun, and it's a good bonding experience. But I, unlike you, do like card games. And I enjoy playing them with friends in the pub. I can be quite awkward, so sometimes if I feel like I don't want to talk anymore, I suggest a game, and then we don't have to talk to people anymore.

Beth
I feel like if it's a card game where you have like a question and it's like, I don't know, you've got five seconds, like, name three modes of transport. Those kind of like talking, fun, laughing games with cards I enjoy. But if it's something to do with the heart and the diamond, no. I just think I'd rather have a conversation and just talk to my friends or whoever, whoever I'm with.

Georgie
OK, so you don't like slow games. So probably you wouldn't like things like Monopoly, which go on for hours, your whole evening.

Beth
Honestly, I think I had a bad experience as a child with Monopoly. This game… we went away with all of our neighbours. There were lots of people and we played a game of Monopoly and it lasted about, I don't know, five hours. Probably not that long.

Georgie
Yeah. No, probably. Monopoly lasts for so long.

Beth
It’s so long.

Georgie
But also people get really aggressive and competitive with Monopoly, don't they?

Beth
Is that because people cheat?

Georgie
Yeah. Well, people can cheat, yeah, for sure. But people get, it's like they think the game is their real life and they get so angry and people lose friendships.

Beth
"That is my house!"

Georgie
Now, you said cheat. What does that mean?

Beth
Well, cheat is to kind of lie or say something that isn't true. For example, you might pretend that you have something and actually you don't. Cheating is seen as negative.

Georgie
Yes. It's like you're not following the rules as well.

Beth
That's it. Yeah.

Georgie
Do you like cheating?

Beth
When I was a child, I liked to cheat. But no, because now it just feels dishonest. If I, if I win a game, I want to win because I actually was good enough or did well enough to win.

Georgie
Yes.

Beth
Are you a cheat?

Georgie
I'm not a cheat. Because I think I'm, I'm too much of a what we call a goody-goody – someone who likes to follow the rules.

Beth
So, Georgie, a quiz is a type of game, I guess. Do you like quizzes?

Georgie
Yes. I also like quizzes. I used to go quite a lot to something we have a lot in the UK called a pub quiz where you go to a pub, there are lots of teams and you answer questions with your team. And I used to really enjoy that because a) you're socialising with your friends in the pub, but I find it really satisfying when you get the questions right. I've actually won a couple of pub quizzes.

Beth
Have you?

Georgie
Yeah.

Beth
Well done.

Georgie
It's really hard sometimes when all of the questions are general knowledge that you don't know anything about. That's really boring. But when you know the questions, it's fun.

Beth
Let's recap the vocabulary we had during the conversation. We had board games. These are games where players usually move pieces around a flat board, like chess.

Georgie
We had quiz, which is a game where you answer questions.

Beth
Cheat means to be dishonest when playing a game, and you can also call a person a cheat if they are dishonest in a game.

Georgie
We had goody-goody, which is someone who likes following rules, like me.

Beth
And you can do a quiz on our website. Go to bbclearningenglish.com and you'll also find a worksheet there so you can test what you've learnt.

Georgie
Next week we'll be talking about the city and the countryside. See you then.

Beth
Bye.

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