Don't Stand So Close to Me
The Police
Count the verbs and you have the lesson: she wants him, makes him cry, he sees her. Every one carries the third-person -s, the ending learners drop more often than any other and that a native speaker notices instantly. The card supplies six or seven instances inside two minutes, all in the same shape, which is roughly what it takes for the habit to stick. The nouns build a school — classroom, teacher, schoolgirl, book, page — and three more are abstract nouns manufactured from verbs: accusations, frustration, temptation. Sting enunciates unusually clearly for rock. B1- is fair, and the subject matter is uncomfortable by design.
How to study this song
Learning “Don't Stand So Close to Me” means 46 entries at B1- — 30 English words, 8 adjectives and 8 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. The glossary is the place to begin — accusations, age and book are the song’s keywords. It is unusually descriptive — 8 adjectives alongside 30 everyday words — so expect colour rather than plot. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| accusations | acusaciones | accuse | accusations | acusações | beschuldigingen | Anschuldigungen |
| age | edad | età | âge | idade | leeftijd | Alter |
| book | libro | libro | livre | livro | boek | Buch |
| car | coche | macchina | voiture | carro |
What this song teaches you
Level · B1-
- Vocabulary words
- 30
- Adjectives
- 8
- Word combos
- 11
- Expressions
- 11
- Verb forms
- 8
- Quiz questions
- 35
More English songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is a tense, new-wave pop hit by the British trio The Police, released in 1980 on their album “Zenyatta Mondatta”.
Written by Sting — himself a former teacher — it tells the uncomfortable story of a schoolteacher and a pupil drawn into a dangerous mutual attraction, matching its edgy subject with a taut, hook-filled arrangement and Sting’s distinctive high vocal.
Its literary knowing wink and pop craft made it one of the band’s smartest singles. Sting, a former teacher himself, wrote it for the album “Zenyatta Mondatta”, and the lyric openly names Nabokov, pointing the listener at “Lolita”.
Did you know?
The song became The Police’s third UK number one and the best-selling single of 1980 in Britain, and it reached the top ten in several other countries. The band re-recorded it in a slower, moodier arrangement in 1986, but it is the original 1980 version that endures as a staple of new-wave and classic-radio playlists.
Charts & streaming
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” sold hundreds of thousands of copies to top the UK’s 1980 sales chart and helped drive the international success of “Zenyatta Mondatta”. It remains one of The Police’s most recognisable songs and a frequently streamed highlight of their catalogue.
Released on 19 September 1980, it sold 808,000 copies in Britain that year and reached ten on the American Hot 100; the band won the 1982 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for it.