Improve your listening and writing skills by filling in the blanks in the song lyrics. These activities are designed for Beginners and Intermediates to learn new vocabulary related to a specific topic in a quick and fun way.
Our proposal today is the lively song Viva la Vida by Coldplay. Despite its happy sound, this song is about the French Revolution and King Louis XVI’s last speech in which he apologizes to his people, accepting his fate before his execution. The title, in Spanish, means “(Long) Live Life“, turning the typical salute to new monarchs, Long Live the King (Viva el Rey), into a call for everyone to live a long life!
Exercise
Fill in the missing words: Saint – ringing – morning – Jerusalem – dice – explain – reason – puppet – drums – wicked – choirs – held – sword – castles – crowd. ⇩
This activity is case sensitive so make sure to use capital letters when needed.
Grammar
Used to/would
We use would or used to to describe actions in the past that are not happening now.
We can sometimes use either would or used to, but there are differences also.
We use used to to refer to actions or situations that happened for a continuous time in the past.
We use would for actions which occurred often in the past, but only for a moment or were over quickly:
I used to live in Michigan.
Carlos used to work for a software company.
Ellen and Paige used to be best friends.
I would shovel snow every winter when I was living in Michigan.
Carlos would drive twenty miles to work every day when he was working for that software company.
Ellen and Paige would call each other every night; they were best friends back then.
We see that actions with a long, steady duration (to live in a place, to work for a business, to be in a relationship, etc.) accept used to.
Actions which happened often in the past but did not last a long time accept would (to shovel snow, to drive to work, to call someone, etc.).
Some sentences accept either would or used to:
I would play football every Friday and I used to play football every Friday are both correct, because we do not need to specify the duration of the action.
Related Course Units
Excellent activity, this music is special for me.
The first time I heard this song, I started following Coldplay, actually I bought the album Viva la vida, and I thought that it was a funny song, but now that I was analyzing the lyrics, I realized that is a bit sad, telling the story about a man that lost everything. It’s interesting how the music can express happines, even if the lyrics are so sad. Viva la vida!
Incredible activity!!!
I’m going to look for the translation of this song, right now. Viva la vida seems like a very sad song to me, but it was very good for increasing my vocabulary. That’s great.
This is the first time I see the true meaning of this beautiful song, so sad and so happy at the same time. Vida la vida!
Thanks!