Talking About Friends

Hello! Welcome to Real Easy English from BBC Learning English. I'm Georgie.

And I'm Neil. We're here to help you improve your English with a real conversation in easy English.

If you want to read along, you can find a text version of this podcast at bbclearningenglish.com.

Right, let's start the show. How are you today, Neil?

I'm very well, thank you, Georgie. What are we talking about in this episode?

Today is all about friends. We'll talk a bit about our friends and why they are important.

Great, let's get started.

So, Neil, do you have a lot of friends?

Yes, I do have quite a few friends. How about you?

Yes, I also have quite a lot of friends. I've lived in different places, so I have made friends in lots of different areas and times of my life.

So, Georgie, you said that you have lived in lots of places, and I know you have lived in Spain. So, do you have lots of friends in Spain?

Yes, I have a few friends in Spain. But now that I live in London, it's quite difficult to stay in touch with them. But, actually, one of them is coming to visit this weekend.

Ah! So you try to keep in touch with some of your friends. That means to keep contact with them, to make sure that you stay friends by speaking to them.

Yes, exactly. And if you have a lot of friends, it can be difficult to stay in touch with so many.

What do you like to do with your friends, Neil?

Well, I like to talk to them, mainly. So, I like to meet them maybe in a pub or restaurant, or we go to a sports match sometimes and we... and we talk there and have a good time.

That sounds nice.

How about you?

Yes, I'm the same. During the week I think a nice plan is to go out for dinner with friends. At the weekends I like going for a walk or getting a coffee with friends.

You can do both of those at the same time!

Yeah. That's right. Sometimes I meet friends, we get a coffee to take away and then go for a walk around the park.

And are you happy about the number of friends you have? Or would you like to have more or fewer?

I always like making new friends. If you start a new hobby or you move to a different place there are always more people and new people to meet. I like making friends. What about you?

Yes, but I like to see my old friends and if I make new friends, I know it's something that happens slowly and that's OK.

Now we have used this word friends a lot, but there are other words for friends too aren't there?

Yes. One is mate. I use mate a lot. We also use pal. So sometimes I refer to my friends that are girls as gal pals.

Gal pals. That's a nice expression.

So, Neil, why are friends important to you?

Ah, yes, good question! Friends are important I think because you can be yourself with your friends. You don't have to pretend if they're good friends because they know you as you are. And that's not the same everywhere you go in life.

Yep, that's true!

Let's recap the language we learned during the conversation.

We learned mates and pals, which are other words for friends.

We heard keep in touch with, which means see or speak to someone regularly. We also say stay in touch.

And a few, which means more than two, but not many. So I have a few friends in Spain, but not many.

Thanks for listening to Real Easy English. Visit our website for more activities and courses to help you with your English: bbclearningenglish.com.

Next time, we'll talk about holidays and places we would like to go.

See you then, goodbye.

Bye!