I Will Always Love You
by Whitney Houston
Thirteen words and not one adjective, so everything rests on the verbs — and two of them teach something distinctly English. you've dreamed of ends with its preposition dangling, which is ordinary English and impossible in most other languages; learners avoid the construction for years and sound stiff because of it. The future then appears in both of its shapes, the full I will go and the contracted you'll have all, a few lines apart, which is the clearest possible way to see they are the same thing. The rest is small and warm: darling, joy, happiness, memories. A1+ is right, and it is sung slowly enough to transcribe by ear.
How to study this song
Learning “I Will Always Love You” means 22 entries at A1+ — 13 English words, 1 adjectives and 8 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. Work through the glossary first: darling, goodbye and happiness are the words you will lean on most. Nothing dominates this card: 13 words against 8 verb forms, so the study time splits evenly. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| darling | cariño | tesoro | chéri | querido |
What this song teaches you
Level · A1+
- Vocabulary words
- 13
- Adjectives
- 1
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 7
- Verb forms
- 8
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
“I Will Always Love You” is the towering ballad that Whitney Houston recorded for the 1992 film “The Bodyguard”.
The song was originally written and performed by the country legend Dolly Parton in the 1970s, but Houston transformed it: opening with a famous a cappella verse before building to a colossal, gospel-charged climax, she made it a showcase for one of the greatest voices in pop history.
David Foster produced the recording, made on 22 April 1992 for the film’s soundtrack.
Did you know?
Houston’s version spent fourteen weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts around the world.
It became the best-selling single ever by a female artist and, for years, one of the best-selling singles of all time, second only to Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997”. It also won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
Charts & streaming
“I Will Always Love You” sold well over ten million copies worldwide and powered “The Bodyguard” soundtrack to become one of the best-selling albums of all time. It remains Whitney Houston’s signature recording and a benchmark performance that vocalists still measure themselves against.
It reached number one on 34 charts around the world, including ten weeks at the top in Britain and fourteen in New Zealand, sold more than 25 million copies and holds a diamond award in the United States. In 2020 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.