Learn English with Adele 🎵 Someone Like You

In this lesson, you're going to learn English with  music. And we're going to review the lyrics to  

the song: Someone Like You by Adele. Let's get  started. Welcome to our song. A very popular,  

older, but very popular song. So we'll go through  the song together and I'll explain some of the  

most common vocabulary. So let's start right here.  I heard that you're settled down. Settle down.  

This is a common phrasal verb "to settle down"  means that you accept responsibility and you live  

a calmer life. This is generally a natural  thing that happens when people are in their  

early 20s, mid-20s. Some people take longer to  settle down. Some people take until they're 30,  

35, 40 or even later to settle down. Now generally  when you settle down, you get married, you buy a  

house, you have kids, you find a stable job. All  of these are the "accept responsibility and live  

a calmer life". Settle down. Now we use "settle  down" in a different context that's perhaps more  

common for your daily use, especially as a student  in the classroom. Because notice this word here:  

calm, calmer. When you settle down, it is also  used to tell everyone to calm down. So if you're  

in a classroom and you're a teacher and all  these students are just talking to each other,  

making a lot of noise, you would say: settle down.  Settle down. So you're telling everyone to calm,  

calm down. So it's also used in that context when  a teacher or a parent or even a boss might say:  

everyone, settle down. And in this case, it's  the same as the phrasal verb "calm down",  

which simply means to become calmer. To become  calmer. Notice for pronunciation, there's no "l"  

in this word. It's not call, with an l. No, it's:  calm. And notice the vowel even. It's an "ah".  

Calm. Calm down. Calm down. I heard that  you're settled down. So Adele heard that the  

person that she used to be in a romantic  relationship with has now settled down,  

so he's probably married someone else. That you  found a girl. Oh yes. And you're married now. So  

as we discussed, this is an aspect of settling  down, which is finding a stable relationship.  

I heard that your dreams came true. Guess she  gave you things, I didn't give to you. So Adele is  

saying, well you chose this other woman to settle  down with, so likely because she gave you things.  

Maybe love, attention, respect, whatever  those things were, that I didn't give you.  

Now notice it's: guess. Guess. This is when you  say "I guess", because, of course, Adele doesn't  

know 100% for certain that that's the reason that  her ex-boyfriend chose to settle down with another  

woman instead of her, right. So she's using  "I guess" to say there's some doubt, doubt,  

uncertainty, not 100% certain. This subject is  missing here. This is commonly done in spoken  

English. Instead of saying "I guess", you can  just say "guess". Guess she gave you things.  

I guess she's late because she missed her  bus. Okay. So you might be discussing why  

a co-worker is late. Oh I guess she's late  because she missed her bus. You can also  

get rid of this part "I guess". I guess she  missed her bus. So the question could be,  

why do you think Sarah is late. I  guess she missed her bus. You're  

not 100% certain, so there's some doubt or  uncertainty there. I guess she missed her bus.  

Old friend. Why are you so shy. Ain't like  you to hold back or hide from the light.  

Let's talk about this word. I know students ask  a lot of questions about the word "ain't". Ain't.  

You need to know that "ain't" is slang. It is  slang in spoken English. I don't use ain't in  

my speech, because I don't really speak with a lot  of slang. And I don't recommend that you use it,  

to be honest. But the word "ain't", even though  it's slang, and I recommend avoiding it in  

spoken or written English, it is extremely  common in music, extremely common even with  

musicians who wouldn't use slang in their  regular speech. They still use it in music. Why?  

It's simply because ain't is a one-syllable  word and it's easier to say. And in music,  

the timing is very important. it's the  rhythm. It's the beat of the song. So it's  

just a lot easier to say the word "ain't".  Now, in this case, "ain't" means "is not".  

It isn't. Or: is not. Which means "isn't" as  a contraction. So notice "isn't". Isn't. Two  

syllables. Ain't. Ain't. One syllable.  Rhythmically, it's easier to say "ain't"  

and it changes the sound of the song. And  that's why it's just very common in music.  

It isn't like you to hold back. Ain't like you  to hold back. Again I don't recommend using it  

in spoken English, but you will hear it all the  time in music. What does it mean: to hold back.  

This is when you stop yourself from showing an  emotion or you stop yourself from sharing your  

opinion. For example, I held back my anger in the  meeting today. If we're talking about an emotion,  

you would identify the emotion. I held back my  anger, my frustration, my jealousy. Generally  

it's negative emotions because generally we  want to share positive emotions. But you might  

hold back your delight if you got promoted and  your co-worker also wanted the promotion but  

your co-worker didn't get the promotion. You  got it. You might hold back your excitement,  

your happiness, because you don't want to make  the other person feel bad. So it is common to hold  

back a positive emotion, but it is more generally  used with negative emotions. Now in this case,  

if you just use it in a general context, you  should have held back, it means you shouldn't  

have shared your opinion. You shouldn't have  shared your opinion, your opinion. Now notice,  

you should have held back. Seeing this positively  means you shouldn't have shared your opinion.  

Because if you didn't hold back, it means you did  share your opinion. So we're in a meeting and I  

say: you know what everyone, I think this project  is a terrible idea. Why are we even doing this.  

Just now I didn't hold back. I shared my opinion.  Now my co-worker might say, why did you say that  

Jennifer? You should have held back. You shouldn't  have shared your opinion. So Adele is saying that  

it's not like her ex-boyfriend to either not share  his emotions or not share his opinion. So maybe  

they're talking, but he isn't really discussing  his new life with his new wife, his new house,  

his new kids, things like that. Let's continue  on. I hate to turn up out of the blue. Okay,  

right here we have a phrasal verb: to turn  up. And we have an idiom: out of the blue.  

"Out of the blue" means unexpected. Unexpected.  Now she says "uninvited", but it's almost implied  

with the expression "out of the blue" because if  you turn up, which I should tell you what this  

means. I hate to turn up. This just means  arrive at a place. Now, most likely Adele  

turned up at her ex-boyfriend's house. Knock  knock. Oh my God, it's my ex-girlfriend,  

out of the blue! I wasn't expecting to see my  ex-girlfriend at my house, which I own with my new  

wife, right. So she arrived at a place. We don't  know what the place is, but most likely it's his  

house. It could also be his work. It could be his  favorite restaurant, and she knows he goes to that  

restaurant every Friday night. And Adele turned up  out of the blue. She arrived at that restaurant,  

because she knew he would be there, and it was  unexpected. He did not know she was going to come.  

Uninvited. But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't  fight it. So if you stay away, it means you leave  

him alone. You don't turn up. And you don't turn  up out of the blue, which means unexpected. So,  

of course, she didn't say: Hey, I'm coming over.  If she texted him and said "I'm coming over",  

that isn't out of the blue. Because it's expected.  Now we use "out of the blue" a lot. You might say,  

my boss gave me a promotion out of the blue, which  is a really good thing, right. My boss gave me a  

promotion out of the blue, which means I wasn't  expecting it. I didn't know that he was giving  

promotions to anyone. He didn't mention that.  Out of the blue. Out of the blue. Notice the  

pronunciation of this, because we really combine  these two words to sound like "outta". Outta. Out  

of the blue. Out of the blue, my boss gave me  a promotion. Out of the blue. Out of the blue.  

All right. Let's continue on. I had hoped you'd  see my face and that you'd be reminded. Okay,  

so Adele turns up, she arrives at his  house. And she had hoped that her boyfriend,  

her ex-boyfriend, would see her and be like "I  miss you". I miss you. I'm so happy you're here.  

Because you'd be reminded. So when you're reminded  of something or someone, you have memories of  

them. So maybe her ex-boyfriend, he sees her and  then all of a sudden these positive memories come  

back to him. That for me it isn't over. So by  saying, it isn't over, Adele is saying she still  

has feelings for this man. She's still in  love with him. Because we use this a lot  

in a romantic context. It's over. It's over. If I  say this to you, what am I doing. It's over. I'm  

ending our relationship. So this is used to end  a romantic relationship. It's over. It's over.  

But Adele's saying "for me, it isn't over". I  still love you. I still have feelings for you.  

Never mind I'll find someone like you. So now  the song, although she's confessing, admitting  

she still loves this man, now she's changing  to saying I'll find someone like you. So I'll  

find another man who has the same characteristics,  personality, maybe even appearance that you have.  

I wish nothing but the best for you.  Don't forget me, I beg. So when you beg,  

you're saying "please, please, please, please".  So this is a verb. To beg. You might say,  

I begged my boss to let me leave  early today, but he said no.  

Children beg their parents all the time.  Oh please, please can you buy me this.  

Can you take me here. Can you do this for me.  Children commonly beg adults. It's not, I guess,  

as common too beg, but still possible, I begged  my boss to let me leave. Notice you beg someone  

to do something. That's the sentence structure.  So you might say, my kids have been begging me  

to take them to Disney World. This is something  that I personally begged my dad to do over and  

over again as a child, and he never did take me  to Disney World. So it did not work. It was not  

successful for me. But who knows, maybe it's  successful for you. And then, so how do you  

beg. You just simply ask over and over again.  Or you try to provide different reasons why.  

I'll remember, you said, sometimes it lasts in  love but sometimes it hurts instead. So that's a  

very poetic thing to say. If it lasts, obviously  it means you stay together as a couple. If it  

hurts, it's probably because the relationship  is over. And he said: it's over. It's over.  

And then she repeats it, sometimes it  lasts, but sometimes it hurts instead.  

You know, how the time flies. I think a lot of  students know this expression, because they have  

it in their own native language as well. But  when time flies, this is an idiom to simply  

say that time moves very quickly. Time flies. So  if you're working on a project and then all of a  

sudden you look at your watch and it's five hours  later, you can say: wow time flies! Time flies!  

Only yesterday was the time of our lives. We  were born and raised, in a summer haze. I don't  

know what "a summer haze" is to be honest.  Bound by the surprise of our glory days.  

I hate to turn up. Okay, we already reviewed this.  I hate to turn up out of the blue. Okay, we've  

reviewed this and then this is the chorus. So we  reviewed this as well. Here's a different part of  

the song. Nothing compares, no worries or cares.  Regrets and mistakes they are memories made.  

Let's take a look at regrets.  A regret is something that  

you wish you didn't do or say. So  something you wish you didn't do or say.  

The important thing about regret is that it is  a gerund verb. I regret breaking up with him.  

So, oh sorry, I regret. The gerund comes  the verb that follows: regret. So we have:  

regret. And then, the next verb that follows it  is the gerund. I regret. And then our "verb ing",  

which is our gerund verb. I regret  breaking up with him. I regret  

quitting my job. I regret not quitting my job. So  this is something you wish you didn't do or say.  

In this case, regret is used as a noun. In  the song. Because you can have "regrets",  

which are things you wish you hadn't done or  said. I have a lot of regrets. Or hopefully,  

I don't have a lot of regrets. Because you did  and said exactly what you wanted to do and say.  

Who would have known how bittersweet  this would taste. When you describe  

something as bittersweet, it means  that it's both negative and positive.  

The negative, you can think of as  sadness. And the positive, happiness.  

Here's an example sentence. You can say: getting  a promotion was bittersweet. Now of course the  

happiness of a promotion is the fact that it pays  more money, You have a nicer job title. Maybe you  

have some extra perks, more responsibility, more  interesting work, more fulfillment. Those are  

the positives. The happy part of a promotion.  What could be the negative, the sad part of  

the promotion? Maybe you're no longer working  with the people you used to work with, because  

the promotion requires you to go to another part  of the company. Maybe you're working way longer  

hours and you're not spending as much time with  your family. And that's the negative part of it.  

So getting a promotion was bittersweet. This is a  great expression to use as a gerund statement. A  

gerund statement is a sentence that starts with  "ing". So we start with our gerund verb. And  

you can use this to make more of a statement, a  general statement. So you can try this and notice  

the expression is "to be bittersweet". To be  bittersweet. And here, of course, I have my verb  

"to be" conjugated in the past simple. I could  say: Getting a promotion is bittersweet, if I want  

to say that the emotions are still taking place  now. But maybe my promotion was last year. So  

I'm more talking about at that time of that  transition it was bittersweet. So maybe finishing  

University was bittersweet. Of course it was  positive, because you don't have to study anymore.  

But it's negative, because of whatever reason.  So lots of things. So you can try an example in  

the comments. And try it with a gerund statement.  And don't forget to conjugate your verb "to be".  

Okay, and this is the same, our beg. This is the,  I'm just thinking if anything is different, but it  

looks like it is the exact same thing. And then  she just repeats it. And that is the end of the  

song. So what I recommend now is to click the link  here, this PDF is available in the description.  

And it's available in the first comment. And you  can click the link here and then you can listen  

to the song with the lyrics and you can follow  along. You can listen to the pronunciation as  

well and hear all of your new vocabulary in  the song. And share in the comments as well.  

What's your favorite new word from the song? I'm  excited to know! I hope you enjoyed this song.  

Now I want you to keep improving your English with  this lesson. And if you haven't already, make sure  

you go to my website and get this free speaking  guide to help you speak English fluently and  

confidently. You can click the link right here.  So get started with your next lesson right now.