Summer is a popular time to get married or plan a marriage proposal. The weather is usually easier to predict and there's plenty of sunshine.

People usually propose marriage with an engagement ring. This confirms their engagement, they then have a wedding to marry each other and become a legal couple. In some cultures, it's not always necessary to propose with a ring first. Sometimes a couple just decides together to get married.

During the time a couple is engaged together, the man is known as a fiancé (masculine) and a woman is a fiancée (feminine). A lot of people get confused between these two words.

A fiancé is a man who is engaged to be married. A fiancée is a woman who is engaged to be married. These are words borrowed from the French language (we call these 'loan words'). Although both words are spelled differently, they are both pronounced in English as either fi-ahn-say or fee-ahn-say. I have heard both of these before.

I'm having some technical difficulties posting the pronunciation for these words so you can listen, but will have it up as soon as possible.
My husband proposed to me in 2011(As you've probably guessed, I said yes!). We were engaged and I became his fiancée and he became my fiancé for about one year. We planned our wedding and were married in November 2012 to become husband and wife! It's still hard to believe that we've been married for almost three years now. It feels just like yesterday!

How long were you a fiancée or fiancé for? Do you have such words in your culture?

I recently read from a survey that 67% of women between the ages of 18 to 24 are worried about their outfits being seen more than once on social media (Facebook, Instagram etc). They buy new clothes to avoid this problem. They are calling this the Outfit Repetition Syndrome!

There's a lot of pressure these days to stand out. If it's true, then there must be a lot of people who go shopping very frequently!

If a person is always going shopping and can't control him or herself, we can say he or she is a shopaholic. A shopaholic is someone who has an addiction to shopping, always buying things, even when they don't need it. This person is a "compulsive" shopper (compulsive= obsessive , uncontrollable).

Someone who can't stop drinking alcohol is known as an "alcoholic." Someone who can't stop shopping is known as a "shopaholic". Notice the similarity?

Do you also feel pressure to always wear something new? Do you know anyone who is a shopaholic?