Here Comes the Bride

Hello English learners! And welcome back to another episode of EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And I‟m Erica.

And today with Erica we are getting married.

Well, we‟re not getting married.

Hehe. We‟re not, but our actors in the podcast are.

That‟s right, so, we‟ve got a lesson today about weddings. And you know what, a lot of the language in this lesson is about weddings and marriages and maybe you don‟t need to use this language everyday, but…

Learning this vocabulary will definitely help you understand or learn a lot more about Anglo culture.

Okay, great point, Marco, I think now we can look at our “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview.

So, two simple words in this vocabulary preview; the first one is groom.

Groom.

Groom.

Groom.

So, who is the groom?

He‟s the man, the man that‟s getting married.

Okay, and our second word is…

Bride.

Bride.

Bride.

And obviously the bride is…

The woman getting married.

Perfect.

Hehe.

Now we have our bride and our groom, so, it‟s time to listen to our dialogue the first time.

Oh, Marco, that sounds sad.

Yeah, I know the reception is cancelled now.

Marco!

Well…

They‟re not getting married!

Uh, well, I mean… the best part is when you go and eat and drink at a reception.

Okay. Well, there‟s some great language in this dialogue and now let‟s look at our “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

Great, our first word on the language takeaway today is it’s about time.

It‟s about time.

It‟s about time.

It‟s about time.

So, now we are going to listen to some examples on how we use this great phrase. Voice: Example one.

Dinners’ ready.

It’s about time! I’m starving! Voice: Example two.

Guess what? I finally got a job.

It’s about time! You’ve been unemployed for two years! Voice: Example three.

We’re almost there. Just a couple more minutes.

It’s about time. We’ve been driving for twelve hours.

So, this phrase means „finally‟.

Finally! At last.

We‟ve been waiting a long time for this.

Exactly.

Okay, so, it‟s about time.

Great, let‟s take a look at our second word now – aisle.

Aisle.

A-I-S-L-E.

Aisle.

Aisle. It‟s a tricky word, it sounds like the contraction of „I will‟.

Yeah, but it‟s spelled so strangely.

Right, we don‟t pronounce the S, the S is silent, it‟s…

That‟s true.

Ai-le.

So, what is an aisle?

In a big room where you have a lot chairs that space in the middle that allows people to walk through, that‟s the aisle.

So, the aisle is the part where you walk.

Yes.

In a big room.

In a big room, wh…

With many chairs.

With many chairs. Hehe.

Okay.

So, in the church…

The bride and groom…

Walk down the aisle.

Exactly.

Great.

Let‟s move to our third word…

Bridesmaid.

Bridesmaid.

Bridesmaid.

So, who are the bridesmaids? Or wait, maybe you ask me that.

Yeah, cause I… I… we don‟t get bridesmaids.

Okay, so, the bridesmaids are the women who are friends of the bride who stand next to her when she‟s getting married. Usually, they‟re her best friends.

Right, okay. Okay, so, we have our bridesmaids, now we have our flower girl.

Flower girl.

Flower girl.

Again, I‟ll explain this one.

Please, please.

The flower girl is the cute little girl who walks down the aisle and who throws flowers.

That‟s the flower girl. And with the flower girl we have our ring bearer.

Ring bearer.

Ring bearer.

So, the ring bearer is the cute little boy who walks down the aisle carrying the…

Rings.

Yep.

Okay, so, a lot of useful vocabulary for a wedding ceremony.

That‟s true.

Now, let‟s look at our last word – gorgeous.

Gorgeous.

Gorgeous.

Gorgeous means beautiful.

Very beautiful.

Yeah, i… you know, beautiful you can only use with a woman.

Uhu.

Can you use gorgeous with a woman or with a man?

Yes, gorgeous is unisex.

So, both men and women are gorgeous.

Right, you can say “Oh, that girl is gorgeous”.

That guy is gorgeous.

Right, or you can say even “This house is gorgeous”.

Okay, so, men, women, objects.

Yes, yes.

Alright, well, we‟ve learned some really interesting vocabulary that will help us to understand an Anglo wedding, so, why don‟t we listen to the dialogue slow down? DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Now, in this dialogue we have a word that many students often make mistakes on.

So, this is a word that causes a lot of problems.

Yes, the word marry.

Marry.

Marry, right? So, we are going to listen now to some common mistakes on how English learners use this word.

Right, so, these are wrong examples. Voice: Example one.

Honey, let’s marry. Voice: Example two.

We married four years ago. Voice: Example three.

When I marry I wanna huge wedding.

These are great examples of mistakes students make with the word marry. They‟re missing a word. Let‟s listen to these right examples to see what word is missing. Voice: Example one.

Honey, let’s get married. Voice: Example two.

We got married four years ago. Voice: Example three.

When I get married I wanna huge wedding.

Great, so, we can see that when we use the word marry, we say to get married.

Exactly right! Get married.

To get married, right?

Okay, don‟t forget that.

Yes, get married. I will get married.

We got married.

Right, so, now you know exactly how to use this word, we are ready to listen to our dialogue again for a third time and this time it‟s gonna be at a normal speed.

Okay, well, I‟m gonna be honest with you, I don‟t know too much about marriages, because, first of all, I‟m not married and I‟ve never really been too many marriages, so, Erica, some questions for you.

Okay.

What are these bridesmaids do… I mean… What are they… what are they about?

What do the bridesmaids do?

Yeah, what are they… what are they doing there?

Well, like I said earlier, the bridesmaids are the friends of the bride, but the most important people besides the bride and groom are the best man and the maid of honor.

Okay, and what do they do there, in the ceremony?

Well, what they do is they sign the marriage license.

Okay, so, they‟re like witnesses.

Exactly.

Okay, so, but wait a minute, they sign the marriage license there in the church?

Yeah, of course, right inside the church you sign the marriage license.

Wow, that‟s strange, because from what I know, in other countries usually you will sign the marriage license before the ceremony.

So, you get married twice.

Yeah, you have like the civil marriage and then you have like the church wedding or whatever.

That‟s so complicated.

Hehe. Well, yeah, I mean the church wedding is just a ceremony; it‟s not really anything official.

Oh, in Canada it‟s the official part as well.

I guess maybe it‟s just more efficient.

Maybe.

Hehe.

Well, this is a really fascinating, a really interesting subject, isn‟t it?

Yeah, because there‟re so many countries that have different marriage ceremonies. I know that marriages in India last around seven days.

Yeah, yeah. I wanna know more about how our users get married in their country[s].

Yeah, so, please go to our website at englishpod.com and tell us how you get married in your countries.

Yeah, I can’t wait to hear your stories.

Yeah, it should be interesting, right?

Okay, well, everyone thanks for listening and until next time… Good bye!

Bye!