Kardashian and West to divorce: BBC News Review

Hello. Welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hi Catherine.

Hello Neil and hello everybody. Today's news:

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West – one of the world's most famous couples –

have announced they are going to divorce.

Do not forget – if you want to test yourself on the vocabulary

that you hear today, there is a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear some more about this story from a BBC News report:

So, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have been married for seven years.

They have four children. They are now going to divorce.

If you are a follower of the Kardashian story,

you will know the marriage has allegedly been in trouble for some time.

It's now official: they are getting divorced.

Some really, really interesting vocabulary in the headlines

around this story. What have you picked out?

We have: 'files for something', 'call it quits' and 'rants'.

'Files for something', 'call it quits' and 'rants'.

OK. Let's have a look at your first headline please.

So, here we go. We're starting with Sky News – the headline is:

'Files for something' – makes a legal request for something.

Yes. 'Files for something': 'files' – F-I-L-E-S – 'for' – F-O-R – and then something.

Now, people probably recognise at least one word here

and that is probably 'files' – 'file'.

Yes.

A 'file' is a kind of holder for a group of documents.

Yes, it is. Yes, if you've got several pieces of paper, several documents,

and you want to keep them all together then you put them in a 'file'.

It's usually made of plastic or cardboard.

It's a kind of pocket or a wallet that is paper-sized – size of a piece of paper.

You keep them all together.

Now, if you are going to a court to ask the court to do something for you,

you will take all your documents in that 'file'

and you will give the 'file' to the court.

In other words, we can... we can take this word 'file' and make it into a verb.

When you give your documents to the court in that 'file',

you are 'filing for' whatever it is you want the court to do.

So, you can 'file for divorce' – it means give the documents to the court

and ask them to give you a divorce.

So, you can 'file for divorce', you can 'file for custody' – anything else?

You can 'file for bankruptcy'. Yes, if you've got no money left,

you can go to the courts and say stop everybody chasing me for money

and you tell them you've got no money: you 'file for bankruptcy'.

OK. So, it's about making legal requests. It's very formal.

This is not for everyday English: this is not about, you know,

I wouldn't 'file for' a delivery from the supermarket.

No, no. It is a 'court-proceedings' piece of language,

but newspapers like it: it's nice and short,

it's very much to the point so... and it's easily understood.

But yeah, it refers to formal leading... legal proceedings.

Right then, let's get a summary of that:

If you'd like to see another story about Kanye West,

we have the perfect one for you, don't we Catherine?

We do. We have a story of when Kanye West announced

he was going to run for the 2020 presidency of the United States of America.

All you have to do to watch that programme is click the link below.

Indeed. Now, let's have a look at our second headline.

Yes. We're in the USA now, with USA Today – the headline:

'Call it quits' – stop an activity.

Yes. Three words this time:

'call' – C-A-L-L; 'it' – I-T; and 'quits' – Q-U-I-T-S. 'Call it quits'.

Yeah. Now, there's a clue about the meaning of this expression

in the word 'quits', isn't there?

There is. If you 'quit' something, you stop something.

If you 'call something quits', you decide or agree to stop something –

to stop doing something. And in this case they have decided

or they're in the process of deciding to stop their marriage.

Yeah. And this is a set expression, isn't it?

We don't break it up. It's 'call it quits'...

Yes – to call...

...with that 's' at the end.

Yes. It's a fixed expression: 'call it quits'.

And it has to have that 's' on the end.

It's not 'call it quit'; it's 'call it quits'. Don't forget the 's'.

Yeah. And it's informal in this occasion...

Very, very informal, yeah. Yes, you would... they won't be 'filing'...

this won't appear in the court documents: 'We have decided to call it quits.'

They'll say: 'We request a divorce be granted.' Yeah.

Yeah. And also you wouldn't hear the judges

or the lawyers in the courtroom using that language,

even if it is like that in the newspapers.

No. No, no, no. And it's not – I mean it's not just about divorce;

you can call anything 'quits' – anything you decide to stop doing.

You can say, 'I'm not doing that anymore. I've called it quits.'

That's right. Looking around at some of the headlines

where this expression has been used –

you often hear it about sports people deciding to retire.

Yeah. Yes and you can use it every day in your everyday life, Neil.

I remember your... remember your 'English for Cats' project

that you worked on for several years?

But we're not doing it anymore...! English for Cats...

Yeah.

...English for Cats was, you know, something I really wanted to do for years.

I put out one episode. Everybody hated it

and so I've decided to 'call it quits' on that project.

Unsurprisingly. We were all quite relieved

when he decided to 'call it quits' on English for Cats

because it really wasn't going anywhere.

Well, English for Dogs is coming, I'm telling you!

Please...

Let's get a summary:

If you would like to see another story about stopping things,

we have one about eating red meat and its potential benefits.

Where can they find it, Catherine?

Potential benefits or not the potential benefits of eating meat.

Decide for yourself by watching the programme.

Just click the link below and you'll go straight there.

OK. Let's have our next headline.

In the UK now, with The Sun – the headline:

Yeah. So, that's the speculation about the divorce from The Sun there.

We don't know if that's going to happen or not,

but that's what they're... that's what they're speculating about.

That word 'rants' – 'rants' means angry, often loud complaints.

Yes. R-A-N-T-S. It's a plural noun.

The singular noun is 'rant' – R-A-N-T.

And it can also be a verb: 'to rant'.

Now, you're right, Neil. When you 'rant' about something

you complain angrily, probably noisy and at length: a 'rant' is never short.

A 'rant' is always long. It's a long, angry complaint, often repetitive,

often quite boring I have to say, when people 'rant'.

Yeah, they just go on and on and on

about something that they're not happy about.

Yeah. And often it's not just – it's not the person speaking

to the person who has upset them or annoyed them...

Yeah.

...it's telling that story to someone else.

Yes. Like you, Neil, have been telling us about

your internet provider for quite a long time now.

My internet service provider was not reaching my standards.

We know...! We know, we know, we know.

I told everyone in the world, who would listen to me about this.

More than once...! Quite a long time, yes.

Quite a long time. Eventually, I decided to tell my internet service provider.

Did you rant at them?

They ranted at me!

Really??

Did you 'go on a rant', Neil? Another way you can say it:

you can 'go on a rant', you can 'have a rant' or you can 'be on a rant'.

And it means when you're talking angrily

about something that bothers you, quite repetitively.

Yes... yes, I did all of those things and the activity is 'ranting'.

'Ranting' and 'raving' as well:

we can say 'ranting', we can say 'ranting and raving'.

To say that you're being angry – all that 'ranty' 'ranty' stuff.

'Ranty' is the adjective. You can even be 'a ranter' if you like to rant.

You can be a 'ranter' and you can also 'rant' not just verbally by speaking;

you can 'rant' by writing, so you can see 'Twitter rants'

when people complain a lot about something on Twitter.

Or you can write an 'email rant' and you can send an 'email rant' to somebody,

which I'm sure you have done to your internet service provider, Neil.

Did they get an internet... an 'email rant' from you as well?

If only I were... if I'd been... if only I'd been able to email them.

I had to call them, which was...

A 'rant' over the phone instead?

...even more unpleasant.

Lucky them.

OK. let's have a summary:

Time now for a recap of the vocabulary please, Catherine.

Yes, we had 'files for something' – makes a legal request for something.

'Call it quits' – stop an activity.

And we had 'rants' – angry, often loud complaints.

If you'd like to test yourself on the vocabulary,

there's a quiz on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

And don't forget... don't forget you can find us all over social media.

Thanks for joining us and goodbye.

Goodbye.