Song: “The Fate of Ophelia”

Written By Brandon Douglas

– C1-C2 (advanced) –

Practice Your Listening Comprehension

Practice Your Reading Comprehension

From her much anticipated album, The Life Of A Showgirl, Taylor Swift’s lead single entitled, The Fate of Ophelia, immerses listeners in a fantasy world inspired not only by her own life, but also that of a fictional character of one of the English language’s most famous literary works, Hamlet.

WHAT TO LEARN

While listening to this cleverly modernized tale, there are a variety of English language elements to practice and learn, including:

  • American English

  • vowel sounds

  • present simple

  • past simple

  • present perfect

  • past perfect

  • contractions

  • a few phrasal verbs

  • adverbs

  • idioms

  • some slang

  • metaphorical language

  • references to famous literature in the English language (i.e., fairy tales, William Shakespeare)

  • vocabulary related to:

    • literature

    • negative mental health

    • death

    • passion

    • the hypothetical

  • and much more…!

Are you a Swifty? What is your favourite song from this album? Do you have any theories about The Fate of Ophelia? Practice your English by letting me know in the comments below.

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ATTRIBUTION

  • Thumbnail image courtesy of Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor Heyser (1857-1921) - Neumeister Kunstauktionen, 5. Juli 2017, Auktion 376, Kat.-Nr. 651, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Brandon Douglas
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Song: “Grateful”