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?