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This is the “No Music“ version. For the version with background music, please click here: If you love our videos, please support us at Patreon: Follow the comical love life of Miss Johnson and teach your learners new vocabulary for relationships and marital statuses. Teachers may also use this story to review learners on the past simple tense: was/were, regular verbs and irregular verbs. Click the link to watch the past simple tense video: WEBSITE: For more creative, engaging and interactive animated grammar teaching videos, please visit our website. Title of English / ESL Video: The Life of Miss Johnson Target English Vocabulary Relationships and marital statuses Student Proficiency Level Pre-Intermediate level Suggested Courses General English Instructions – Play the video in class after delivering a warm-up activity first. – Pause the video whenever the narrator asks students a question to give students time to answer. For example, after elicitations and concept checking questions (CCQs). Summary of English Vocabulary: Relationships and Marital Statuses Approximate chronological order: Story – Starts: 0:00 – Ends: 2:16 Vocabulary Explanation: – Starts: 2:16 – Ends: 12:02 a bachelor (noun) a bachelorette (noun) A bachelor is a single man. At the beginning of the story, Mr. Smith was a bachelor. A bachelorette is a single woman. We use bachelor and bachelorette to describe both young and older people. At the beginning of the story, Miss Johnson was a bachelorette. a spouse (noun) A spouse can be either a husband or a wife. After Miss Johnson and Mr. Smith got married, they became spouses. a partner (noun) A partner is a person in a relationship with another, but is not married. However, when we think of a partner, we usually think of a serious relationship. They probably have been in a relationship for a long time, and are likely to be living together. However, a partner can also be a spouse. So partner has two meanings. to divorce (verb) a divorce (noun) be divorced (adjective) After Miss Johnson and Mr. Smith got married, they broke up. In this case, we say they divorced. Only married couples can divorce. Unmarried couples cannot divorce. They can only break up. be separated (adjective) to separate (verb) When a married couple decide to get a divorce, this usually takes a long time. It could take even years. During this time, many people don’t live together with their spouse anymore. In this case, the couple haven’t divorced yet. They are separated. If a husband needs to go overseas for a year for work, but the wife stays at home, they are not separated, because they still want to stay married. When the husband returns home, he will continue living with his wife. a widow (noun) a widower (noun) be widowed (verb/adjective) After Mr. Williams was hit by a car and died, Miss Johnson wasn’t married anymore. She became a widow. A widow is a female. A widowed is a male. After Miss Johnson married Mr. Jones, she wasn’t a widow anymore. She became married again. to propose (verb) a proposal (noun) When Mr. Jones asked Miss Johnson to marry him, we call this action a proposal. be engaged (adjective) to get engaged (adjective) After Mr. Jones proposed to Miss Johnson and she said yes, they won’t be married until their wedding. So between the time Miss Johnson said yes, and their wedding, they are engaged. We usually use the verb get with engaged. Example Sentence: Miss Johnson and Mr. Jones got engaged. a fiancé (noun) a fiancé (noun) a fiancée (noun) a fiancée (noun) When Miss Johnson and Mr. Jones were still dating, Mr. Jones was Miss Johnson’s boyfriend. But after they got engaged, Mr. Jones became Miss Johnson’s fiancé. There are many ways of pronouncing this. The two most common ways of pronouncing this are either stressing on the a or the é. A fiancé is a male. A fiancée is a female. These two are spelt differently, but pronounced the same. marital status (noun) Marital status is another word for a relationship status. Common examples of marital statuses include single, married, divorced, separated, widowed and engaged. These are adjectives and they are gender-neutral. So they can be used for either men or women. When we are filling out forms; for example, driver’s licence forms, library card forms or even mobile phone contracts; we often need to give our marital status.
