Lesson 11

Relationship status:
Are you married?

The long versions of the videos
Return to the Short Versions

Level: Pre-Intermediate

Lesson contents:

• Marital status.
• Jr. and Sr. (USA).
• Expression "How dare you...!"
• Modal verb "may".

Always watch the video several times without subtitles first. Train your ears! Your pronunciation will be much better if you follow this simple rule.

Exercises for this lesson:

• Marital Status
• Kitty
• Kitty's Complete Reply
• Ed
• Is Steven engaged?
• Charlie and Charlie
• Listening comprehension
• Are YOU married? What is your marital status?

How to do the lessons:

1. Watch the video without subtitles.
2. Do all the Exercises.
3. Come back to this page.
4. Watch the video with English Subtitles. Use the Pause button. People speak fast!

Problems? See general support or ask your question here.

Are you married?

Watch this video, then click on Exercise 1

Same video with Precise Subtitles

Teachers:

It used to be easy to define "married". Most dictionaries are out of date and still define marriage as the legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife. "Same-sex marriage" is now legal in Connecticut, District of Columbia (Washington DC), the state of Washington, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, and everywhere in Argentina and Canada and in the Mexican state of Coahuila, and at least 8 other countries since my last update of this lesson. The list has grown so quickly in the last few months that there is not enough room in this column to list them all. The definition of "married" must be changed to: "The legal union of 2 people, usually husband and wife". But in the relatively near future, there will be no "usually husband and wife".

But that is not the point of this lesson. The vocabulary of marital status is one item that is important in this lesson. Gay people also co-habitate. They get engaged, married and separated. They get divorced. And many are single. But what about the deaths of gay spouses? How will the language be changed for "widow" and "widower", for example?

This lesson is about marital status amongst other things, and some new filming in the very near future will concretely reflect how marriage is being redefined in our new millenium.