It is worth checking carefully as not all countries recognise this as a legal status. This gives a good survey of different legal terms for cohabitation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage

Faint and swoon are synonymous - they both mean to lose consciousness. Dizzy and giddy are synonymous - they both mean to have the sensation of the world spinning round you so that you lose balance.

News briefing = information provided to journalists/reporters about proposals and intentions. Mr Obama will give his third briefing to journalists and reporters on Wednesday, having given his first on Monday and his second on Tuesday.

Do you mean you want phrases and words that are connected to running and/or serving in a hotel? This is one site: http://www.englishclub.com/english-for-work/hotel-vocabulary.htm

Here it is a conjunction used to introduce a clause which reports something or gives further information. It can be omitted.

Every day he wakes early in the morning and goes fishing. Every day he wakes and goes fishing in the early morning.

So it is here too. Dogs can run round in them without acually damaging things. It would be nice to know what this dog was doing - he might be in an enclosed exercise pen/yard, rather than the ground round a house.

You could of course say "garden" - since you say this is about dog-sledding, is the dog let loose within an enclosed area for exercise or just let loose?

Without the full dialogue it is not really possible to say what is meant. It probably means "Did you have help?"

These days they mean the same. We are still waiting for the official report which was requested by 10 days ago. We cannot see why it is taking so long to produce the typescript.