Somebody That I Used to Know
Gotye ft. Kimbra
Built on a single contrast, and once you see it the whole song organises itself: past tense for the relationship — we were together, I was glad, you said — and present tense for the grievance, you treat me. English uses that switch to separate what is finished from what is still going on, and a learner who defaults to one tense throughout loses the meaning completely. Notice too I told myself, where the reflexive is compulsory; English cannot simply say told and stop. The vocabulary is emotional and faintly formal: ache, resignation, sadness, company. B1+ is fair, and the two voices give you a male and a female delivery to compare.
How to study this song
The card for “Somebody That I Used to Know” is built from 46 study entries at B1+: 25 English words, 6 adjectives and 15 verb forms. Start with the glossary: ache, company and end come up again and again, so they are the ones to know first. This one leans on its verbs: 15 distinct forms against 6 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
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ache | dolor | dolore | douleur | dor | pijn | Schmerz |
| company | compañía | compagnia | compagnie | companhia | gezelschap | Gesellschaft |
| end | fin | fine | fin | fim | einde | Ende |
| friends | amigos | amici | amis | amigos |
What this song teaches you
Level · B1+
- Vocabulary words
- 25
- Adjectives
- 6
- Word combos
- 11
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 15
- Quiz questions
- 35
More English songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Somebody That I Used to Know” is the breakout hit of the Belgian-Australian artist Gotye, featuring the New Zealand singer Kimbra, released in 2011 on the album “Making Mirrors”.
Built around a delicate, xylophone-like sample and a slow-building arrangement, it is a he-said/she-said account of a painful breakup, with Gotye’s wounded verses answered by Kimbra’s sharp rebuttal.
Its unusual, art-pop restraint made it stand out from anything else on the radio. Gotye wrote and produced it at his parents’ house on the Mornington Peninsula, building the track around a sample of “Seville”, a 1967 instrumental by the Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá.
Did you know?
The song became a global phenomenon, reaching number one in the UK, the US and dozens of other countries, and won the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in 2013. Its striking body-paint video was watched hundreds of millions of times and widely parodied.
Charts & streaming
“Somebody That I Used to Know” was one of the best-selling singles of its year worldwide, with sales in the many millions. A rare art-pop track to conquer the mainstream, it remains Gotye’s signature song and a defining hit of the early 2010s.
It spent eight consecutive weeks at number one in the United States, sold more than thirteen million copies worldwide and was the best-selling song of 2012 with 11.8 million, ranking among the best-selling digital singles in American history.