The Pretender
by Foo Fighters
How to study this song
“The Pretender” carries 24 English words, 14 adjectives and 32 verb forms — 70 study entries in all, graded B2-. Begin with pretender, skeletons and bones: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. This one leans on its verbs: 32 distinct forms against 14 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the words on their own are not the problem — it is the way they are put together that takes the work.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pretender | impostor | impostore | imposteur | impostor | bedrieger | Hochstapler |
Adjectives
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dark | oscuro | buio | sombre | escuro | donker | dunkel |
Verb forms
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| keep | mantener | tenere | garder | manter | houden | behalten |
What this song teaches you
Level · B2-
- Vocabulary words
- 24
- Adjectives
- 14
- Word combos
- 4
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 32
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
«The Pretender» opened Foo Fighters’ 2007 album «Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace» and was its first single. It is built on a question asked twenty-four times and never answered — what if I say — which is a structure rather than an argument. Grohl addresses someone in charge without ever naming them, and the refusal at the centre of it is simply that he will not give in.
Did you know?
The English verb in the title is a false friend in all five of the other languages taught here: it does not mean to claim or intend, it means to fake.
Charts & streaming
Released 21 August 2007, from the album that followed on 25 September 2007. It was the band’s most-played rock radio single of that period.