Friday Sessions #34: ‘Love, love is a verb’ – ‘Teardrop’, Massive Attack

Another Friday session and another new key, (or clarification) for your English learning…

Check the first line of the lyrics to ‘Teardrop,’ this beautiful, chilling track from Massive Attack, ‘Love, love is a verb.’ When you learn a new word, do you ever stop to consider if it’s a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a phrasal verb, a transitive / intransitive verb..? As a fluent native speaker, these are just labels and we rarely need to even think about them. But when you are developing skills in another language, knowing these ‘labels’ helps to avoid confusion (and errors,) as you speak and write.

Take for example, another line repeated through this week’s track, ‘Fearless on my breath,’ – ‘fearless’ (to have no fear,) is an adjective, but could it be confused with fear, fearful, fearfully or fearsome?

Mixing the different forms (or word families as I like to call them,) by using a noun instead of an adjective, or many other variations, is a really common error. But it’s Friday, so for now just remember to clarify whenever you need to, keep this in mind and enjoy this week’s track.

Lyrics
Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Fearless on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me, makes me lighter
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

Night, night of matter
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my

Water is my eye
Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Of a confession
Fearless on my breath
Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

You’re stumbling in the dark
You’re stumbling in the dark