Love and Marriage: Wedding Vocabulary in English 3.15

One of our speakers studied Spanish for a year because they'd been asked to be best man at a wedding in Spain and assumed a speech was compulsory. The day before, a friend admitted the whole thing was a wind-up — Spanish weddings don't have best man speeches. "So he had a good laugh. I didn't." That's episode 3.15, where we work through fifteen words and phrases for love, marriage and everything that happens either side of the ceremony.

What you'll hear in this episode

Katie asks the questions and two speakers answer them, unprepared, in two sets.

In the first half, Kami talks about getting engaged in the United States — billboard proposals, a name up on the big screen at a sporting event, and the question friends always ask afterwards: "So, how did he ask you?" Katie then asks about affairs and divorce, and the answer is careful rather than quick: a marriage is "a bond of trust", and cheating "breaks everything that a marriage is built on". One of the speakers describes being single and offers an American phrase for it — "Single and ready to mingle". On the question about being infatuated, there's a nice bit of resistance: "I think infatuated is a very strong word" — the preferred description is "head over heels in love with somebody". And on heartbreak: "I guess I was kind of the heart-breaker".

The second half moves to weddings, with Tom. Is it bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other the night before? Should a woman propose? Tom says men are sometimes too nervous, then blames feminism for removing their masculinity, which earns a flat "Oh what load of crap!" from Katie. He also asks whether a bachelor is allowed a girlfriend, and hands the choice of bridesmaids to his future wife — the flowers in the hair and "all of that nonsense".

Quick facts

Episode	3.15 — Love & Marriage
Pack	Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3
Level	3
Duration	22 minutes 11 seconds
Audio	Free
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack (€39)

What you'll learn

The vocabulary comes first as questions you hear before you get any answers, so you have to work out the meaning from context and think about how you'd reply. Then we take the words apart.

The pronunciation work here is specific and useful. The /t/ disappears in "best man", so you hear /besmæn/ — a good example of what native speakers do to consonant clusters at speed. "Bride" and "groom" are drilled joined together, three times, so you get used to hearing them as one chunk rather than two words. In "monogamous", the stress lands on the second syllable and everything else weakens to /ə/; the same happens at the end of "bachelor". "Propose" starts weak, /prə/, with the stress on the second syllable — which is exactly why learners who say PRO-pose sound off. In "infatuated", the t turns into a /tʃ/, like church. You'll also practise the /z/ sounds in "bridesmaids" and the /v/ in "vows", teeth on bottom lip.

Beyond that, the answers are full of the hesitation, self-correction and backtracking that real speech contains, so this is genuine practice at following someone who is thinking while they talk.

Vocabulary from this unit

to get engaged /ɡetInɡeIdʒd/ — to agree to marry. The opening question of the whole episode.
monogamous /mənɒɡəməs/ — to only have one romantic or sexual partner at a time.
a spouse /spaʊs/ — husband or wife. As the audio notes, the word you meet on official forms.
faithful /feIθfəl/ — to be true to, to not have relationships with another person except your partner. Often followed by to.
infatuated /InfætjueItId/ — to be unable to think about anything else, to love someone (usually someone you don't know well) a crazy amount.
heartbroken /hɑː(t) brəʊkən/ — very, very sad.
vows /vaʊz/ — promises, usually very strong or serious. Discussed via "to love, honour and obey".
the best man /besmæn/ — the man who helps the groom at the wedding, he also usually makes a speech about the groom later in the day.
a bachelor /bætʃələ/ — a single man or one who has never married.
a reception /rIsepʃən/ — a formal party after the wedding, where everyone sits down for a meal and people make speeches.

In the workbook

The workbook for 3.15 comes with the all-in-one pack at €39. It contains the full transcript of both conversations, so you can check the words you missed while Kami and Tom were talking over their own hesitations.

After that there's a glossary of all seventeen entries with phonemic transcription and definitions, then three practice tasks. Practice 1 is a matching exercise where you join sentence halves — "He's been best…" with "man three times, but he's still a bachelor himself". Practice 2 makes you choose between two words that learners genuinely confuse: infatuated or heart-broken, spouse or best man, vow or argue. Practice 3 is the pronunciation sort: four columns, /aʊ/ like cow, /ə/ like uh, /θ/ like thumb, /tʃ/ like church, and six words to place in them. Full answers are at the back.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the conversation scripted?

No. The answers from Kami and Tom are unscripted, which is why you get sighs, laughter and half-finished sentences. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What level is this episode?

Level 3, from the Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3 pack. It runs 22 minutes 11 seconds.

Do I need the workbook?

The audio works alone, and it's free. The workbook adds the transcript, the glossary with phonemic script, and the three practice tasks with answers.

Which sounds does this episode actually drill?

/aʊ/ in vows and spouse, weak /ə/ in bachelor and monogamous, /θ/ in faithful, /tʃ/ in infatuated, plus the silent /t/ in "best man" and word stress in propose and infatuated.

Can I use these questions myself?

Yes — that's the design. Each set is played once without answers so you can respond first, then again with the real answers to compare.

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