Trick or treat: the English you'll actually hear on Halloween

Tonight, around six, the doorbells start. Small witches, a dinosaur, three Spider-Men and somebody's dad in a bedsheet with two eyeholes. You know the word pumpkin. You probably know ghost and witch. What catches people out on Halloween is not the vocabulary list. It is the thirty seconds of small talk at the door, which nobody teaches, and which every American over the age of four can do in their sleep.

So here is the English you will actually hear on October 31st: on the doorstep, at the party and at work the next morning.

At the door

The script is short, and it barely changes from house to house.

• "Trick or treat!" is what the children say when you open the door. Strictly speaking, it is a threat: give us a treat, or we play a trick on you. Nobody means it any more.
• "Happy Halloween!" is what you say back, holding out the bowl.
• "Take one" or "Take a couple" tells them how many. If you say nothing, expect a small hand to take more.
• "What are you supposed to be?" is the question you will hear most, and it is friendly, not rude. Be supposed to be means "what is your costume meant to show?" The answer is simply "I'm a vampire" or "I'm Elsa".
• "I love your costume!" is the easiest compliment of the year, and it always lands.

One cultural rule that is not written anywhere: a porch light that is on means "come and knock". If the light is off, the house is not handing out candy, and trick-or-treaters walk past.

Ten words worth having

• costume: what you wear to look like someone or something else. You dress up as a pirate. You do not "dress like" one or "wear as" one.
• trick-or-treaters: the children going from door to door.
• candy: American English. In Britain it is sweets, but here candy covers chocolate bars too.
• jack-o'-lantern: a pumpkin with a face cut into it and a candle inside. You carve a pumpkin. You do not cut it.
• haunted house: a house that ghosts are said to live in, or, every October, an attraction that people pay to be frightened in.
• decorations: fake cobwebs, plastic skeletons and orange lights. People say they put up their decorations.
• spooky: frightening in a fun way. Halloween is spooky.
• creepy: frightening in an uncomfortable way. A doll whose eyes follow you is creepy.
• scary: the general word. A film, a dog or an exam can be scary.
• sugar rush: the burst of energy a child has after too much candy, usually around 8 p.m.

The difference between spooky, creepy and scary is a good one to get right. Using spooky for something that genuinely frightened you sounds oddly cheerful.

Halloween idioms you will hear all year

These come out in October, but they do not go away on November 1st. You will meet them at work, on the news and in films.

• to have a skeleton in the closet: to have a secret from the past that would embarrass you. "Every politician has a few skeletons in the closet."
• to give someone the creeps: to make someone feel uneasy. "That empty parking garage gives me the creeps."
• to be scared stiff or to be scared to death: to be extremely frightened, usually said with some exaggeration. "I was scared to death before my interview."
• the graveyard shift: the night shift at work, roughly midnight to 8 a.m. "She works the graveyard shift at the hospital."
• a skeleton crew: the smallest number of people that can keep something running. "We only have a skeleton crew in the office this week."
• to ghost someone: to stop answering someone's messages without explanation. It is modern, very common and not at all spooky. "We went on two dates and then he ghosted me."

You do not need all of these. Pick two, use them this week in a real sentence, and they are yours.

Small talk at work and at parties

Adults talk about Halloween too, mostly in the week before. These are the questions that come up by the coffee machine:

• "Are you doing anything for Halloween?"
• "Are you dressing up this year?"
• "Do you get a lot of trick-or-treaters on your street?"
• "What are you going as?"

Short, natural answers:

• "Just staying in and handing out candy."
• "We're going to a party. I'm going as a zombie."
• "Not this year, but my kids are dressing up as dinosaurs."
• "We get a ton. I bought three bags and I'm still worried."

Notice going as. What are you going as? and I'm going as a zombie are what people really say, much more often than What will your costume be?

Grammar corner: two patterns in one evening

Dress up as + a noun. She dressed up as a witch. They're dressing up as the Beatles. The as is not optional. Dress up like exists, but it means "dress in a similar style", not "wear a costume of".

Be supposed to be. On Halloween it asks what a costume means: What are you supposed to be? The rest of the year it describes an expectation: The meeting is supposed to start at nine. This film is supposed to be really good. It is one of the most useful structures in spoken American English, and Halloween gives you a dozen chances to hear it in a single evening.

Try it out loud

Answer these three questions out loud, in full sentences, without writing anything down first:

1. What is the scariest film you have ever seen, and why did it scare you?
2. If you dressed up for Halloween this year, what would you go as?
3. What gives you the creeps?

If you got stuck on any of them, that is not a vocabulary problem. It is exactly the speaking practice our classes are built around.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Speak American! Leave your porch light on.

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