We Will Rock You
by Queen
How to study this song
Learning “We Will Rock You” means 35 entries at A1+ — 15 English words, 5 adjectives and 15 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. Work through the glossary first: buddy, boy and noise are the words you will lean on most. This one leans on its verbs: 15 distinct forms against 5 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| buddy | colega, amigo | amico | mon pote | amigo, parceiro | makker | Kumpel |
Adjectives
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| big | grande | grande | grand | grande | groot | groß |
This card holds 4 more adjectives. You meet them when you play the song.
Verb forms
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| you're | eres (you are) | sei (you are) | tu es (you are) | és (you are) | je bent (you are) | du bist (you are) |
What this song teaches you
Level · A1+
- Vocabulary words
- 15
- Adjectives
- 5
- Word combos
- 7
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 15
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
«We Will Rock You» is one of the most recognisable pieces of music ever recorded, and it is also one of the shortest hits in the history of rock: the album version lasts just over two minutes. It was written by Brian May, the guitarist of Queen, and recorded in 1977 at Wessex Sound Studios in London for the band’s sixth studio album, «News of the World». The production is credited to Queen and the engineer Mike Stone. The song was released on 7 October 1977 on the same single as Freddie Mercury’s «We Are the Champions», with «We Will Rock You» on the other side, on EMI in the United Kingdom and Elektra in the United States.
The idea came from the audience. During the band’s previous tour, at a concert at Bingley Hall in Stafford, the crowd kept singing after the show was over and chose a football anthem, «You’ll Never Walk Alone», to bring the band back. May later explained on BBC radio that the moment moved the group deeply and made them think about music that a whole hall could perform together, not just listen to. The result was a song that asks almost nothing of the listener except two stamps of the feet and a clap of the hands, repeated again and again, and a short chorus that anyone can shout.
That famous beat has no drum kit in it. In the studio the members of Queen stamped on the wooden riser that normally held the drums and clapped their hands, then recorded themselves again and again, layering take after take. Delays of different lengths were added to each layer, chosen in ratios based on prime numbers so that the echoes would never line up neatly. The trick made a handful of musicians sound like a stadium full of people. Apart from Mercury’s voice, almost nothing else happens until the very end, when May’s electric guitar finally enters with a short, fierce solo that closes the track.
The lyric is a portrait of a life in three stages. In the first verse the listener is a noisy child playing outside; in the second, a young man full of anger who wants to challenge everything; in the third, an old man who has lost his strength and asks for calm. Each verse ends with a picture of humiliation, and each is answered by the same collective threat in the chorus. The words are simple on purpose: they are addressed directly to the listener, using the informal «you» of the street, so that a crowd can take them over and turn them into its own chant.