Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 765, Annulling a Marriage.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 765.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Hey, it's a new song.
Go to our website, which is not new, at eslpod.com.
Become a member.
Download a learning guide.
Learn English.
It's just that simple.
This episode is a dialogue about two people who are going to end their marriage, but they're not getting a divorce.
Let's get started.
Did you hear?
Kate and Christopher are trying to annul their marriage.
What?
They've only been married for two months.
What brought this on?
I have no idea.
Neither of them is underage or bigamous and they married of their own free will, so I don't know how they can ask for an annulment.
I've heard that you can get an annulment if there's some kind of fraud.
Maybe they're asking for the annulment on those grounds.
Maybe.
I wish I knew more.
Ooh, could they be related by blood and didn't know it?
It's sounding more and more like a soap opera.
I suppose we shouldn't speculate.
It's sad when any marriage ends, even if it only lasted two months.
Something must be really, really wrong.
Or else, Christopher finally figured out what a witch Kate is.
Oh, somebody's a little catty today.
Do I detect some jealousy here?
Me?
Jealous of Kate?
Forget it.
I've known her for years, and I just wouldn't wish her on my worst enemies.
Courtney begins our dialogue by saying, Did you hear?
Kate and Christopher are trying to annul their marriage.
To annul A-N-N-U-L means to end some sort of agreement or contract between two people.
You're saying that there was some problem with the contract, that something went wrong, and that the agreement or contract should never have been made to begin with.
It was in some ways flawed.
There was a problem with it from the very beginning.
Well, marriage is a kind of legal contract.
To annul a marriage means to end a marriage not because you are getting a divorce.
What you are saying is that the marriage was never valid.
It was never correctly done.
There was some problem that prevented it from being a real, valid, legal marriage.
In the United States.
You may know when you get married.
You can get married by someone from the government.
Or you can get married in a religious ceremony, which also makes you legally married.
So you can have a religious and public wedding all at one time.
There are three ways that you can end a marriage.
You can get a divorce.
This is the most common way.
This says, I was married, but I no longer want to be married.
You have to get a divorce from the government.
A religious organization cannot give you a divorce.
You can have a marriage annulled.
When you have a marriage annulled, you're saying that there was some problem with the marriage, that it was never really a legal marriage.
You can also end your marriage by killing your husband or wife.
I believe this is sometimes known as an Italian divorce, although I haven't tried it.
Kate and Christopher are going to annul their marriage, not get a divorce and, I guess, not kill each other.
Ray says, what?
They've only been married for two months.
Imagine two people getting married and then ending their marriage in only two months.
That would never happen, right?
Ray says, what brought this on?
The expression, what brought this on, means you don't understand why something has happened.
It's very unexpected.
And you're asking why.
Why did this happen?
Courtney says I have no idea.
I don't know.
Neither of them is underage.
To be underage means that you are too young to do something.
In the United States, you must be 21 years old to drink alcohol in a bar.
If you try to drink when you are less than that, you are considered underage.
You're not old enough.
To be underage to get married depends on the state.
In some states, it's 18 without getting permission from your parents.
In some states, it might be 16.
It depends on where you live.
Marriage laws are taken care of or are made by each individual state.
So there are 50 different types of laws, although most of them are similar.
Being underage however, could mean that the marriage wasn't legal and therefore you could annul it.
You could say it never existed.
Courtney says that neither of them is underage or is, I think she means to say, a bigamist.
A bigamist, B-I-G-A-M-I-S-T, is someone who is illegally married to more than one person.
So you have a wife in New York and then you have another wife in London or another wife in Los Angeles.
That would be being a bigamist.
It's called bigamy and it's against the law in the United States.
Courtney says that Kate and Christopher married of their own free will.
The expression of your own free will, W-I-L-L, means that no one forced you to do it.
It was your choice.
She says, I don't know how they can ask for an annulment.
You can only get an annulment if certain conditions exist.
Otherwise you have to get a regular divorce.
Ray says I've heard that you can get an annulment if there's some kind of fraud.
Fraud, F-R-A-U-D is when you lie or mislead other people, usually to get some sort of money from them.
Ray says, maybe they're asking for an annulment on those grounds.
On some grounds means for some reason.
Grounds is a reason, usually a legal reason for something.
You say, I have grounds for divorce.
Meaning, I have legal reasons why I can divorce you.
Because you stole my money or you cheated on me.
You went and had some relationship with another man or another woman.
That would be grounds for divorce.
Courtney says, maybe.
I wish I knew more.
Oh, maybe.
Could they be related by blood and didn't know it?
To be related by blood means that you are part of the same family.
You're part of the same family, we would say, through birth, not marriage.
So, for example, you have an aunt.
Your mother's sister has a boy, and you're a girl.
The two of you are then called first cousins.
Well, you can't get married because you're related to each other by blood.
You can also be related to someone by marriage.
I would call my father's brother's wife my aunt.
My uncle's wife would be my aunt, but she's my aunt by marriage, not by blood.
I'm not genetically related to her.
If two people are related by blood, especially if they're first cousins, they are not allowed to get married.
Courtney says, A soap opera is a very dramatic television show.
Usually that is on every day with the same group of characters.
In many countries, soap operas only last a couple of months.
In the United States, soap operas can last years and years.
Every day you're seeing these characters over and over again.
Soap operas often have sort of crazy, weird stories.
And when someone says this is like a soap opera, they mean that things are happening that aren't normal, that seem rather unusual or odd.
Ray then says, I suppose we shouldn't speculate.
To speculate S-P-E-C-U-L-A-T-E means to say what you think might be true, even if you're just guessing.
You don't really know.
You're guessing what might be true.
He says it's sad when any marriage ends, even if it lasted only two months.
Something must be really, really wrong.
Courtney then says, or else.
Ray says, or else what?
Courtney is saying, there may be another reason.
And Ray is asking, what do you mean?
What reason?
Courtney says, or else.
Christopher finally figured out, finally realized...
What a witch Kate is.
A witch, W-I-T-C-H, which is pronounced just like another word spelled different, W-H-I-C-H.
A witch is a very rude, negative way of describing a woman that you don't like, usually because she's mean or unpleasant.
Some people use another word, a vulgar word similar to witch, sounds like witch, but starts with a B instead of a W.
You should never, ever use that word in any circumstances, I think, although people do use it.
But a witch would be describing a woman who you don't like, who you think is mean.
Ray says, oh, somebody's a little catty today.
To be catty, C-A-T-T-Y, means that you are saying mean things about other people.
You are gossiping about them.
You are saying... about what they did in a critical way.
It's sometimes used to describe a woman or girl talking negatively about another woman or another girl, often somebody who they don't like.
Ray says, do I detect some jealousy here?
To detect, D-E-T-E-C-T, means to observe something that is otherwise difficult to see.
I'm detecting some jealousy.
Jealousy is when you want something that someone else has, that you want what they have and you're mad at them because they have it and you don't.
So in this case, Courtney might be jealous of Kate because Kate has something that she wants.
She perhaps likes Christopher.
Courtney says, me, jealous of Kate?
Forget it.
Meaning, no way.
It's an informal way of saying that you are completely in disagreement with what the other person said.
They're completely wrong.
Forget it.
I've known Kate for years.
To wish someone or something on your worst enemy is a phrase used when you are talking about a person or a thing that you really don't like and you wouldn't want anyone else to have to, for example, spend time with that person or experience this certain thing.
Your worst enemy would be the person you hated the most.
So this other person is so bad or this other thing is so terrible that you wouldn't even want someone that you hate to have to be with that person or experience that thing.
I wouldn't wish her, Kate, on my worst enemy.
I wouldn't want anyone to be with her because she's such a terrible person.
That's what Courtney is saying.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I have no idea.
Neither of them is underage or bigamous and they married of their own free will, so I don't know how they can ask for an annulment.
I've heard that you can get an annulment if there's some kind of fraud.
Maybe they're asking for the annulment on those grounds.
Maybe.
I wish I knew more.
Ooh, could they be related by blood and didn't know it?
It's sounding more and more like a soap opera.
I suppose we shouldn't speculate.
It's sad when any marriage ends, even if it only lasted two months.
Something must be really, really wrong.
Or else... Or else what? or else Christopher finally figured out what a witch Kate is.
Ooh, somebody's a little catty today.
Do I detect some jealousy here?
Me, jealous of Kate?
Forget it.
I've known her for years, and I just wouldn't wish her on my worst enemy.
There's no need to speculate on who our wonderful scriptwriter is.
I'll tell you her name, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
