Can't Stop the Feeling!
by Justin Timberlake
Every verb on this card is in the present. There is no past tense anywhere, which is unusual and makes it a clean first listen: you only have to hold one tense in your head. What you practise instead is negation. I can't take and don't stop are the two contractions an English beginner needs before anything else, and they are sung clearly enough to hear the t. The nouns are body parts and rooms — bones, feet, eyes, body, ceiling, room — so you can learn most of them by pointing. A1- is right, and the tempo does you a favour: fast music built from simple words trains your ear without stretching your grammar.
How to study this song
“Can't Stop the Feeling!” carries 32 English words, 7 adjectives and 17 verb forms — 56 study entries in all, graded A1-. Begin with air, blood and body: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. This one leans on its verbs: 17 distinct forms against 7 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 six 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| air | aire | aria | air | ar | lucht |
| blood |
What this song teaches you
Level · A1-
- Vocabulary words
- 32
- Adjectives
- 7
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 17
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
“Can’t Stop the Feeling!” is an upbeat disco-pop single by the American singer Justin Timberlake, released in 2016 as the lead song from the DreamWorks animated film “Trolls”, on which he also served as executive music producer. Co-written with the Swedish hitmaker Max Martin and Shellback, the track is a deliberately sunny, feel-good celebration of dancing away your worries, powered by a bright bassline and a soaring, sing-along chorus. Its family-friendly joy made it an instant staple of adverts, radio and sporting events. Timberlake wrote and produced it with Max Martin and Shellback for the “Trolls” soundtrack, in which he also voiced a character.
Did you know?
The single debuted straight in at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 — one of a select group of songs to open at the summit — giving Timberlake his first chart-topper there in nine years. It went on to earn him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and a Golden Globe nomination, and Timberlake performed it at the Oscars ceremony, turning a children’s-film tune into one of the biggest all-ages hits of the decade.
Charts & streaming
“Can’t Stop the Feeling!” topped the charts in numerous countries and was certified multi-platinum, becoming one of the best-selling singles of 2016 worldwide. Buoyed by the success of “Trolls” and constant use in commercials and events, it remains one of Justin Timberlake’s signature solo hits and a modern feel-good standard. Released on 6 May 2016, it opened with 379,000 downloads in a week and is certified 4× platinum in the United States, 5× platinum in Britain, 11× platinum in Australia and diamond in Canada. It won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media.