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Weddings – Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin Dodds, one of the teachers and directors for Learn Real English. Welcome to this month’s vocabulary lesson for the conversation Weddings. I have the text of the conversation printed out and I just made some notes about some words or some groups of words that you may have had some difficulty understanding so I’ll be explaining those as they relate to this conversation.

And, as always, before we begin I’d like to explain three different words that you hear quite often in our conversations. The first one is yeah. Yeah is a slang word for yes.

The second is actually two words combined together, two words put together, you and know. So it actually sounds like y’know and you see it in the conversation y’know. So again, it’s you and know put together. When we speak sometimes we’re speaking very fast and so you know sounds like y’know.

The third word is like, so you probably know that like commonly means to have positive feelings for someone or something. It can also just be a filler word though, which means it doesn’t really have a meaning. You’ll hear that quite often in our conversations where it’s just a filler word. It doesn’t have a meaning. Alright, so let’s begin.

In the very beginning of the conversation, Joe says, “So Andy’s wedding invitation came in the mail today.” Andy is the name of one of Joe’s friends. They’ve been friends for a very long time. He’s actually a high school friend.

And then Joe says, “The first one was Mark and Kelly’s wedding.” So Mark and Kelly, these are the names of a couple, two friends of Joe and I, and they actually live in the state of Washington which is just north of California.

And then I say, “I could go barefoot.” So barefoot means without shoes, no shoes, shoeless.

And then Joe says, “Yeah, it’s a bikinis mandatory for the women.” So a bikini is a swimsuit for a woman or for a girl and it’s two pieces. So it’s a two-piece swimsuit, what we say a piece for the top and a piece for the bottom. And mandatory means to have to do something. So he’s saying that all the women coming to the wedding have to wear a bikini, a two-piece swimsuit.

And then I say, “Yeah, right.” So I’m saying that as I know that Joe is joking.

And then I say, “I would imagine a lot of people will be barefoot.” So imagine means think. I would think a lot of people will be barefoot.

And then Joe says, “They’re going to wear sandals.” So sandals are shoes that are usually worn without socks. And usually they’re open at the top where your toes are and they can be open on the sides of your feet and they can be open at the back of your foot as well. They are shoes that are worn in really hot weather since you don’t wear them usually with socks and they’re open, they’re very open shoes.

And then Joe says, “He encouraged people to wear sandals.” So encouraged means he was telling people that they should wear them.

And then Joe says, “That’s not really common for weddings.” So common means usual.

And then AJ says, “It’s probably more about Hollywood.” So what he means by that is actually…it’s, they’re probably getting these ideas from movies. When he says Hollywood, he’s speaking about movies. Hollywood is a part of Los Angeles, which is a city in the state of California, and it’s where a lot of American movies are made.

Then AJ says, “The music and the white dress and the tuxedos.” So tuxedos are suits for men. They’re really nice suits when men dress up. They’re black usually and a black jacket, black pants and then there’s a white shirt that men will wear.

And then I say, “She was Southern Baptist and so they got married in the church.” So Baptist, this is a particular group of Christians, of people who are Christians, of the Christian religion. It’s a particular group of Christians. And I say Southern because my friend that I was speaking about, is from the southern part of the United States. She lives in the state of Georgia which is where I grew up.

And then I say, “Everybody was just sitting around with these dour looks on their faces.” So dour means unhappy or very serious.

And then AJ says, “It was so heavy and serious.” So when he says it was heavy, heavy here is another way of describing something being serious.

And then I say, “At the reception they’ve got a live band.” So the reception is the party after the wedding, after the wedding ceremony.

And then I say, “But even if not a live band, a DJ.” So a DJ is a person who organizes and plays the music at an event. So they’re playing pre-recorded music.

And then I say, “I don’t even think there was any music going on at this wedding.” So when I say going on, I don’t think there was any music going on, I’m saying I don’t think there was any music being played at this wedding.

And then Joe says, “I used to attend family weddings.” So attend means go to. I used to go to family weddings.

And then Joe says, “They were huge.” So huge means really big.

And then Joe says, “Food that was so immense.” So immense here means a lot. Food that was so much, or there was so much of it. There was a lot of it.

And then Joe says, “There was so much food it was ridiculous.” So ridiculous here means unbelievable. There was an unbelievable amount of food.

And then Joe says, “There’d be kind of like cocktails.” So cocktails are mixed drinks. Mixed drinks meaning an alcoholic drink, so there’s some kind of liquor like rum and then something mixed with that so you could have Coke and rum mixed together. That would be a mixed drink. That’s just one example. There’s many, many.

And then Joe says, “There’d be food that was considered almost a snack.” So considered means thought of as. And a snack is a small amount of foot that’s eaten in between a meal. So a meal being breakfast, lunch, dinner. So you would eat a snack in between one of those three meals.

And then Joe says, “Then they would have an enormous dinner.” So enormous means really big, so really big dinner, a lot of food.

And then Joe says, “Then they’d have another course after the dinner.” So course here just means more items of food.

And then Joe says, “It was just so over the top and gluttonous.” So over the top, this is an idiom that means going beyond what is expected or normal. And gluttonous means more than is necessary.

And then AJ says, “They’re pretty elaborate.” So elaborate means complex. There was a lot of money and time and material things put into weddings is what AJ’s saying, as opposed to it being very simple.

And then AJ says, “I guess traditionally for American weddings, there’s the rehearsal, right?” So rehearsal is the practice before the actual wedding ceremony. So it usually happens the day before.

And then Joe says, “The groom’s parents pay.” So groom, of the two people getting married, the man is called the groom and the woman is called the bride.

And then I say, “They don’t want to go into debt for their wedding.” So into debt means owe money. They don’t want to owe money for their wedding.

And then I say, “They’ll just elope a lot of times.” So elope means to get married without telling anyone.

And then Joe says, “I don’t think that the tradition of the bride’s parents paying for the wedding is one that is necessarily adhered to anymore.” So adhered to means, here, followed. People don’t…in other words people don’t do it anymore. They don’t follow that tradition.

And then Joe says, “It would kind of seem weird.” So weird means strange.

And then Joe says, “Maybe that’s a tradition that was born out of the fact that people were getting married at a very young age.” So born out of the fact means came about from the fact that people were getting married at a very young age.

And then Joe says, “They didn’t have the means to pay for the wedding.” So the means, here, that means they didn’t have the money to pay for the wedding.

And then I say, “There’s a term, bridezilla, where the bride is just horrible to deal with.” So bridezilla, this comes from the really big monster, Godzilla, that was in Japanese movies back in the 1950s. So it’s just a combination of Godzilla and the bride, so bridezilla.

And then I say, “I know this woman I take a lot of my clothes to to be altered.” So altered here means making changes to clothing.

And then I say, “Making their wedding dresses from scratch.” So from scratch means from the very beginning.

And then I say, “She’s told me some horrible stories of the brides just being extremely bitchy.” So extremely means very. And bitchy means bad-tempered, not in a good mood.

And then AJ says, “Maybe in the past, decades ago, there was kind of a standard wedding.” So decades ago, a decade is 10 years. So he’s saying decades ago, he’s saying that plural, y’know, more than one so it’s more than 10 years ago. And standard, when he says there was kind of a standard wedding. Standard means typical or usual.

Alright, this is the end of our vocabulary lesson for the conversation Weddings. And I will be right back with the commentary.