La Vie en Rose
by Édith Piaf
Four phrases here do the same structural job, and it is the one that trips every English speaker learning French: il me prend, il me parle, il me dit, me fait. The object pronoun goes before the verb, never after it. English does the opposite every time, so the instinct has to be retrained, and meeting the pattern four times in two minutes does that faster than any exercise. The vocabulary is small and old-fashioned in the best sense — yeux, bouche, bras, rire, chagrins. A 1947 recording with exceptionally clear diction and long vowels, so the B1+ grade reflects sentence structure rather than speed. Slow, and worth replaying.
How to study this song
“La Vie en Rose” carries 26 French words, 4 adjectives and 15 verb forms — 45 study entries in all, graded B1+. Start with the glossary: yeux, rire and bouche come up again and again, so they are the ones to know first. This one leans on its verbs: 15 distinct forms against 4 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
| FR | EN | ES | IT | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yeux | eyes | ojos | occhi | olhos |
What this song teaches you
Level · B1+
- Vocabulary words
- 26
- Adjectives
- 4
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 15
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
“La Vie en Rose” is the signature song of Édith Piaf and one of the most famous French songs ever written. Piaf penned the lyric herself in the mid-1940s, with the melody credited to Marguerite Monnot and Louis Guglielmi (“Louiguy”), and released it as a single in 1947.
Its title — roughly “life in rosy hues” — captures the song’s whole spirit: a tender vision of seeing the world through the glow of new love.
Emerging in the years after the Second World War, its gentle optimism struck a deep chord in France and far beyond.
Piaf wrote the words in 1945 and first sang it in concert in 1946, but she nearly abandoned it: those around her dismissed the idea, and Marguerite Monnot wanted nothing to do with the music. The credit went instead to Louiguy, and the single appeared in 1947.
Did you know?
The song became an international standard, recorded in many languages by artists from Louis Armstrong to Grace Jones, and received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.
It has been used in countless films and adverts as instant shorthand for Paris and romance, and lent its name to the 2007 Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose”, for which Marion Cotillard won an Academy Award.
Charts & streaming
A massive success in its day, “La Vie en Rose” has sold in the millions across its many versions and remains one of the best-known and most-covered songs in the history of French music.
Decades after Piaf’s death it still earns heavy streaming, radio play and screen use, a permanent fixture of the global standards repertoire. It sold a million copies in the United States in 1947, and by 1950 seven different versions were on the American charts at once.