Roar
Katy Perry
The reason to take this card is two words: I used to. English marks a habit you no longer have with a construction that most languages carry in a single verb ending, and learners either avoid it entirely or overuse it. Here it opens the song, so you meet it in its natural position. Around it runs a line of past simple — I forgot, I fell, I got up, I earned — which lets you feel the difference between a one-off event and a former routine. The nouns form an animal set: lion, tiger, bee, butterfly. Note the comparative louder while you are here. A1+ is fair, though the vocabulary is more figurative than that suggests.
How to study this song
“Roar” carries 30 English words, 5 adjectives and 19 verb forms — 54 study entries in all, graded A1+. Begin with bee, boat and breath: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. This one leans on its verbs: 19 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bee | abeja | ape | abeille | abelha | bij | Biene |
| boat | barco | barca | bateau | barco | boot | Boot |
| breath | aliento | respiro | souffle | respiração | adem | Atem |
| butterfly | mariposa | farfalla | papillon | borboleta |
What this song teaches you
Level · A1+
- Vocabulary words
- 30
- Adjectives
- 5
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 19
- Quiz questions
- 35
More English songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Roar” is an empowerment anthem by the American pop star Katy Perry, released in 2013 as the lead single from her album “Prism”. Written by Perry with a team including Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Bonnie McKee and Cirkut, the song pairs a marching, arena-sized beat with a lyric about finding your voice and standing up for yourself after being held back.
Its roaring, shout-along chorus was tailor-made for stadiums, adverts and talent-show auditions, and it became one of Perry’s most recognisable and enduring hits. Perry wrote it with Bonnie McKee, Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Cirkut, the last three also producing. Listeners noted its resemblance to Sara Bareilles’s “Brave”; Dr. Luke replied that “Roar” had been written and recorded first, and Bareilles said publicly that she was not upset.
Did you know?
The single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks and reached number one in many other countries, extending Katy Perry’s long run of chart-topping singles.
Its jungle-themed music video, in which Perry ends up ruling the wild, has been watched billions of times on YouTube, and the song has become a go-to anthem of confidence and self-belief used in countless films, sports montages and commercials.
Charts & streaming
“Roar” was certified multi-platinum, including Diamond-level sales in the United States, and ranked among the best-selling singles of its year worldwide. With billions of streams and video views, it stands as one of Katy Perry’s biggest commercial successes and a definitive pop anthem of the 2010s.
Released on 10 August 2013, it entered at two and took two weeks to reach the top, where it stayed a fortnight; it has sold some fifteen million copies and is certified 15× platinum in the United States and 22× platinum in Australia.