Forever Young
by Alphaville
How to study this song
“Forever Young” carries 29 English words, 10 adjectives and 37 verb forms — 76 study entries in all, graded B1. Start with the glossary: style, while and heaven come up again and again, so they are the ones to know first. This one leans on its verbs: 37 distinct forms against 10 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level part of the list will already be familiar; the rest is what closes the gap.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| style | estilo | stile | style | estilo | stijl | Stil |
| while |
Adjectives
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| young | joven | giovane | jeune | jovem | jong | jung |
| short |
Verb forms
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| let's dance | bailemos | balliamo | dansons | dancemos | laten we dansen | lasst uns tanzen |
What this song teaches you
Level · B1
- Vocabulary words
- 29
- Adjectives
- 10
- Word combos
- 16
- Expressions
- 14
- Verb forms
- 37
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
«Forever Young» is the best-known song by Alphaville, a synth-pop group from West Germany. It came out in September 1984 on the WEA label as the third single from the band’s first album, which has the same title and appeared at the end of that month. The song lasts about three minutes and forty-five seconds. Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens wrote the music together, and Gold, the singer, wrote the words. It was produced by Colin Pearson, Wolfgang Loos and Andreas Budde and recorded at Studio 54 in Berlin.
The band had started in Münster in 1982, after Gold and Lloyd met in West Berlin the year before. At first the three musicians actually called the group Forever Young. Later they took the name Alphaville from a science-fiction film made in 1965 by the French director Jean-Luc Godard, and the old name stayed behind as the title of a song and of an album.
The recording changed direction in the studio. The band first planned an energetic dance track and spent two days working on that version. Then Andreas Budde suggested removing almost everything and leaving a slow, spacious ballad carried by synthesizers and by Gold’s high voice. According to the account given on Wikipedia, that was the moment when everyone agreed that they had found the song. A faster «Special Dance Mix» of about six minutes was released as well, so both ideas survived.
The words belong to the last years of the Cold War. In the early 1980s Germany was divided, and many young Europeans were afraid that a nuclear war could begin at any time. The song opens with people who decide to dance while they look up and wonder whether the bomb is going to fall. From there it moves to bigger questions. Is a short, bright life better than a very long one? What happens to the plans that people never carry out? The singer does not give a clear answer. He admits that growing old without a purpose frightens him, and he compares being young to something precious that shines in the light. The chorus repeats the title as a wish and then turns it into a question for the listener.
For learners of English the song is very useful. The tempo is slow, Gold pronounces each word clearly, and the vocabulary is simple. The text is full of pairs of opposites, it contains several fixed expressions that English speakers use every day, and it includes two relaxed spoken forms that are common in songs and in conversation.