Entertainment

Lyrics: Shallow

Listening 4 min Lyrics Intermediate

Vocabulary - 14 contextual words

Grammar - Reflexive pronouns

Pronunciation - American

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.

For Today’s lyrics we bring you the Oscar and Grammy winning song Shallow by Lady Gaga and the actor Bradley Cooper. This rock power ballad is the lead single from the soundtrack to the film A Star Is Born and it has mesmerized people since its release due its sentimental lyrics. Enjoy it!

Exercise

Fill in the missing words: – far – there – deep – more – ground – myself – surface – change – hardcore – Crash – tired – from – times – modern . ⇩

This activity is case sensitive so make sure to use capital letters when needed.

Grammar

Reflexive pronouns (himself, herself, themselves)

Reflexive pronouns end in –self or –selves.

We use reflexive pronouns when we refer again to the subject of a sentence:
I built this table myself. (myself is the reflexive of I)
Did you cook this meal yourself? (yourself is the reflexive of you)
Has she been waiting by herself? (herself is the reflexive of her)
He can’t lift that heavy box by himself. (himself is the reflexive of he)
They blame themselves for the accident. (themselves is the reflexive of they)
We taught ourselves English. (ourselves is the reflexive of we)
Have you seen the self-driving car? It moves by itself!” (itself is the reflexive of it)
One cannot simply become famous all by oneself! (oneself if the reflexive of the impersonal one)

When we use names, we must use the reflexive pronoun to refer to the number of people and gender:
Mr. Kapikidze opened this store himself. (male singular)
Elena gave me a box that she made herself. (female singular)
Tommy, Micah, and Andy live in a house that they constructed themselves. (plural)
Francine’s dog tried to bite itself on the tail. (itself can be used for animals and objects)

We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and the object are the same:
We made ourselves some coffee.
Arnold cut himself on some broken glass.

We use by + reflexive pronoun to mean alone:
I went to see the film by myself.
Did you come here by yourself?

Related Course Units