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Talking about old friends

Episode 260605 / 05 Jun 2026

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Becca and Phil have a real conversation in easy English about old friends – the friends you have known for a long time. Learn to talk about the difference between keeping in touch, losing touch and getting back in touch, and find out what helps people to stay friends as they get older.

Vocabulary

old friend
friend you have known for a very long time

in touch
seeing, speaking or writing to each other often

keep in touch / stay in touch
continue to see, speak or write to each other over a long period of time

lose touch
no longer see, speak or write to someone

get back in touch
begin to see, speak or write to someone again, after some time without contact

stay friends
continue to be friends over a long period of time

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Transcript

Becca
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English from BBC Learning English. This is the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you with your learning. I'm Becca.
 
Phil
And I'm Phil. And you can watch a video version of this podcast on our website. It's got subtitles to help you learn. That's bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Becca
How are you today, Phil?
 
Phil
I'm good. I'm really good. What about you? Have you got any plans for this week coming up?
 
Becca
Yes. I'm really excited for the weekend because I'm going to meet up with some of my old school friends. I've known them since I was in year eight.
 
Phil
Well, Becca, today we're talking about old friends. And when we say old friends, we mean friends that we've had a long time, particularly since we were children.
 
Becca
So, Phil, do you have many old friends?
 
Phil
Yeah, I do have some, but I probably don't see them as much as I should.
 
Becca
Hmm. Why is that?
 
Phil
As you get older, you move away. You have families. You... And I'm just not very good at staying in touch with people, so I don't often see people that are very old friends. What about you? Do you have many old friends that you see often?
 
Becca
Yeah, I do, I do. I mean, luckily for myself, we don't live very far away, so it is easier to stay in touch. And by staying in touch, we mean, kind of, keeping that contact. So, I do have a couple of friendship groups. We have group chats where we, kind of, you know, keep in touch with each other there and we plan meetings. Although we find that when we plan to meet each other, we will then plan to meet each other the next time, months in advance – months before we meet – because, yeah, it is difficult when you are older and you get busy.
 
Phil
How often do you see your old friends? It sounds like you stay in touch quite a lot.
 
Becca
Yeah, we do. We stay in touch a lot over, like I said, group chats, social media, and we try to meet at least once every month, once every couple of months, you know, if we really try. So yeah, it is easier for us to meet up. So, when was the last time that you saw one of your old friends?
 
Phil
It was probably sometime last year, I think. But yeah, I probably only... Only a couple of times a year, I think, I'd see old friends.
 
Becca
And have you lost touch with any of your old friends? So, to lose touch is to lose that contact that you have with them.
 
Phil
Yes, I think I have. You don't notice it when it happens, do you, really? Because it's not like you have an argument or you decide, I'm not talking to that person anymore. You just... I don't know. You just don't see them for a long time. If I saw those people again, then I might get back in touch with them. But yeah, there's people that... There're definitely people that I used to know that I haven't seen for a long time. So yeah, I've definitely lost touch with some people.
 
Becca
So, do you think your friendship groups have, kind of, changed as you've grown older then? If you've lost touch with some old friends, you have newer friends now.
 
Phil
What has changed a lot is I have a lot more friends who are families, who have children the same age that we have. Because suddenly when you have children, you have so much in common with people in the same situation, and your children do. And if your children get on very well together, you're going to spend a lot of time together.
 
Becca
I see. So, that's where we're quite different, because a lot of my friends don't have families. And, you know, I don't either. So, it's quite easy for us to stay friends and to stay in touch with each other. OK. Let's recap some of the vocabulary we learned in this episode, starting with old friend. And that's a friend that you've known for a very long time.
 
Phil
So, we had this idea of being in touch with someone – with a friend. And if you are in touch with someone, it means that you see them often. You speak to them often. So, if you keep in touch with someone, it means you continue to do those things even after a long time.
 
Becca
If you lose touch with someone, that means that you don't see or speak to them anymore. However, you can get back in touch with someone – that is to start seeing them or speaking to them again.
 
Phil
And if you stay friends with someone, it means that you continue to be friends with someone for a long period of time.
 
Becca
For example, it's easy for me to stay friends with some of my old friends because we live very close to each other.
 
Phil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Try the worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com, to practise and to help you have your own easy English conversations.

Becca
And we'll be back next week with another real conversation in easy English. But for now, it's goodbye.
 
Phil
Bye!

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