Speaker A
Hi Neil. How are you?
BBC Learning English hosts Neil and Becca discuss autumn in the UK: falling leaves, autumnal colours, cosy clothes, Halloween and Bonfire Night.
Key Takeaways
- Autumn in the UK brings cooler weather, falling leaves and autumnal colours
- Learners can use the vocabulary of seasons, such as 'cosy' and 'autumnal', in everyday speech
- UK autumn traditions include Halloween and Bonfire Night, which centres on fireworks
- Opinions about seasons vary, and the speakers' feelings shifted with an unusually hot summer
What the video covers
- Hosts Neil and Becca open by noting that summer has ended and autumn has arrived in the UK
- Autumn is called 'fall' in other English-speaking countries
- Leaves fall from trees, become crunchy on the ground, and turn orange-reddish before falling
- The adjective 'autumnal' describes things related to autumn, such as its colours
- Becca explains the word 'cosy' as feeling warm when things around are cold, such as sitting by a fire
- Becca says she usually dislikes autumn because it signals the end of summer, but this year's hot summer made her welcome autumn
- Halloween is less popular in the UK than in the USA but Becca enjoys its scary themes
- Bonfire Night on 5 November involves bonfires, fireworks and sometimes cooking food such as baked potatoes in the fire
- Neil notes that Bonfire Night is now mostly about fireworks, and that bonfires are hard to hold in cities
- The episode directs learners to bbclearningenglish.com for transcripts and worksheets
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Hi Becca. I'm very well, thank you very much. Have you noticed that it's not summer anymore?
Speaker A
It's autumn. How do you feel about that? What do you notice?
Speaker A
Yes, it is autumn in the UK, and the weather's getting a little bit cooler, and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees.
Speaker A
You like autumn, don't you?
Speaker A
I love autumn! I'm excited for this episode because we're talking all about autumn today.
Speaker A
We are. And people need to know that they can go to our website, bbclearningenglish.com, to get a transcript and a worksheet to help them improve their English.
Speaker A
So, right now it is autumn in the UK. You might hear it as 'fall' in other English-speaking countries.
Speaker A
What changes happen in the UK during autumn?
Speaker A
The leaves fall. The leaves fall off the trees, and they are crunchy on the ground.
Speaker A
You can make big piles of leaves and jump into them. It's so much fun.
Speaker A
And I love also the crunching sound when you walk over those autumn leaves.
Speaker A
Before the leaves fall off the trees, they turn into this beautiful orange-reddish colour.
Speaker A
And I love all of these autumnal colours – so, 'autumnal' being the adjective to describe something that relates to autumn.
Speaker A
Yeah. You really like autumnal things, don't you?
Speaker A
I do. You like to wear different clothes?
Speaker A
I do, yeah. I'm very excited to start wearing jumpers and big boots. And, as you mentioned, it's getting colder now, so I want to be warm and cosy.
Speaker A
Cosy. That's a fantastic word. Cosy is that feeling you have of being warm when things around you are probably a bit cold.
Speaker A
So, it feels cosy if you go into a house on a cold day and there's a big fire, for example.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, I obviously love autumn. How does the changing of the seasons feel to you?
Speaker A
Well, usually... usually I'm not a big fan. I don't really like autumn because it means that the summer is over, and I love summer and the long, late evenings.
Speaker A
But this year it was so hot, I've had enough of summer, so I'm very happy that it's autumn.
Speaker A
Yeah. How about you? I feel the same. I've always loved autumn, but I am a really big lover of summer.
Speaker A
But yeah, it has been far too hot this summer, so I welcome the autumn this year.
Speaker A
OK Becca. So, what kind of things do we do in the UK in autumn?
Speaker A
Well, I am excited for Halloween. It's not as popular in the UK as it is in the USA, for example, but I do love Halloween because I love things that are a little bit scary, and that's at the end of October.
Speaker A
But on the 5th of November is when we have Bonfire Night.
Speaker A
Yes, Bonfire Night is when we make a big fire, an outside fire, to celebrate, and we stand around the fire.
Speaker A
And actually it's more about fireworks these days. So, fireworks are those very pretty explosions in the sky that we look at on special occasions like New Year and that kind of thing.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, it's usually quite noisy on the 5th of November, but the sky is lit up with beautiful fireworks.
Speaker A
I can't remember the last time I did a bonfire. Do you celebrate Bonfire Night every year?
Speaker A
Well, I don't have a bonfire because I live in a city, and it's not very nice for my neighbours, but when I was younger and lived more in the countryside, we would go to a Bonfire Night, and we would stand around the bonfire and maybe even cook food in the bonfire.
Speaker A
Oh, OK. So, like toasting marshmallows or melting chocolate?
Speaker A
Baked potatoes.
Speaker A
Baked potatoes...?
Speaker A
Yeah. I've never... I've never cooked a baked potato on a bonfire before.
Speaker A
Yeah, you wrap the potato in foil, and then you put it in the fire, and then you wait.
Speaker A
And then you open it, and it's completely black. That doesn't sound very tasty to me!
Topics:autumnfallautumnalcosyHalloweenBonfire NightfireworksUK seasonsEnglish vocabularyBBC Learning English
