Love the Way You Lie
by Eminem ft. Rihanna
The most demanding English card here, and it is worth saying why before you press play: the subject is domestic violence, told from inside it, and the vocabulary is correspondingly harsh — rage, temper, restraint, fist, knife, windpipe. Go in knowing that. Linguistically the thing to study is the join between we said things and we didn't mean. There is no that between them, because English lets you drop the relative pronoun when it is the object of its own clause. Almost no other European language permits this, so learners either insert that everywhere or fail to parse the sentence at all. Eminem delivers at speed; C1+ is, if anything, modest.
How to study this song
Learning “Love the Way You Lie” means 123 entries at C1+ — 53 English words, 22 adjectives and 48 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. Work through the glossary first: chance, fault and fist are the words you will lean on most. This one leans on its verbs: 48 distinct forms against 22 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the words on their own are not the problem — it is the way they are put together that takes the work.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chance | oportunidad | occasione | chance | oportunidade |
What this song teaches you
Level · C1+
- Vocabulary words
- 53
- Adjectives
- 22
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 52
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
“Love the Way You Lie” is the intense collaboration between the American rapper Eminem and the singer Rihanna, released in 2010 on Eminem’s album “Recovery”.
Pairing Eminem’s rapid-fire, confessional verses with Rihanna’s aching, sung hook, it stares hard at a volatile, abusive relationship, refusing to look away from its cycle of anger and regret.
Its raw subject and star pairing made it one of the most talked-about singles of its year. It began as a demo by Skylar Grey and the producer Alex da Kid in late 2009; Eminem wrote his verses over it, and Alex da Kid produced the finished record with Makeba Riddick.
Did you know?
The song spent seven weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in the UK and around the world. Its stark video, starring Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan, drew huge attention, and the track became one of the best-selling singles of 2010 and a landmark in both artists’ careers.
Charts & streaming
“Love the Way You Lie” sold in the many millions worldwide and was one of the defining hits of the early 2010s, powering strong sales of “Recovery”. It remains one of Eminem’s biggest-ever singles and a frequently streamed collaboration.
It reached number one in twenty-two countries, is certified 13× platinum in the United States and 6× platinum in Britain, and collected five Grammy nominations in 2011, among them Record and Song of the Year.