Four, Five Seconds - Verse 1

Hello and welcome to Learning English with Lyrics, the podcast where we breakdown the lyrics of English language songs, to help you improve your English. I am your host Jake, and today we are starting on a new song "Four, Five Seconds" by Rihanna, Kanye West, and the incomparable Paul McCartney. I hope you're as excited as I am to jump into a new song! If you've never listened to this podcast before, I'd recommend listening to our first episode titled "Introduction" to get a good idea of how this podcast works. Otherwise, you're in the right place!

If you haven't had a chance to listen to the song yet, go give it a listen. As you're listening, write down what you think the lyrics mean, especially the first verse, since we will be talking about that today. Have you listened to the song yet? Great, let's go!

The song begins with the line "I think I've had enough." Most of you have probably heard this phrase before, but in case you haven't, it simply means that you have reached your limit with whatever is happening. In other words, you no longer want to experience what is occurring. For example, if my brother is annoying me, and he's been annoying me for too long, I might suddenly say to him "I've had enough of this!". That means I'm done with or can't deal with his annoying behavior any longer. Either he needs to stop or I am going to leave. Reaching your limit and then saying something angrily is sometimes called "snapping". You could say that I "snapped" at my brother. Or simply that I snapped.

Usually when someone has "had enough" that means that they have snapped! It means they have gone from tolerating something or someone, to no longer tolerating it or them. We could also say they "don't want to deal with it anymore" or that they "can't deal with it anymore".

"I've had enough" is a pretty strong statement, and the words "I think" at the beginning soften the tone a bit. When you add "I think" into a phrase, you're making yourself sound a little bit more polite. Though it's worth noting that with a phrase like "I've had enough", it's difficult to sound polite. You're usually pretty unhappy when you say it. We use the words "I think" a lot in English to soften the tone of our language. If I am at a party and it's time for me to leave, I might say "I think I'm going to leave" or "I think it's about time to head out." I say this to sound more polite. What I actually mean is "I'm leaving", but that can seem rather abrupt or rude. What are some other situations you can think of that you could soften with the words "I think"?

I think it's time to move on to the next line!

"I might get a little drunk"

There's not a lot to say about this line, but let's talk about some language around drinking. When we talk about drinking, without specifying a beverage, we are almost certainly talking about drinking alcohol. For example, "We went out drinking!" or "I had a couple of drinks last night". It's not milk we're talking about!

To go from being sober, or not drunk, to becoming drunk, we use the word "get". "I am going to get drunk". "I got drunk". "You would not believe how drunk I got!" Getting drunk is the process of moving from being sober to being drunk.

To get a "little" drunk, means that they will drink enough to be drunk, but not *too* drunk. As you probably well enough, there are many different levels or states of being drunk. We have different names for all of them.

When you've had enough alcohol that you begin to feel some small effects, we call that being "buzzed". This probably isn't what the singer is considering a "little drunk". The next level past "buzzed" we would call being "tipsy". This is when the alcohol has started to have a noticeable effect on you, and most would consider this a bit drunk. This is probably what the singer is talking about. This is just enough alcohol to start feeling the effects more clearly. You begin to feel lightheaded. Your speech might start to slur. Your brain isn't working as quickly, and your body isn't responding as quickly.

After that we have all sorts of terms for increasing levels of drunkenness. Inebriated is a more formal term for being drunk. Plastered, sloshed, wasted, and hammered are some more colorful ways to say someone is very, very drunk. And if you're a fan of fun idioms, you can say that someone is "three sheets to the wind", a reference to sailing that indicates that someone is so drunk they are no longer in control of themselves.

But our singer isn't *that* drunk. Only a little drunk. And, more importantly for our song, this small level of drunkenness is generally thought to "loosen" your tongue. If you're not familiar with the phrase "loosen your tongue", what do you think it means? Imagine that normally your tongue is tied up in a knot. Since your tongue is in a knot, only certain words can escape...polite words. When a tongue is "loosened", it's no longer restricted by the tight knot, and more words can escape your mouth. Usually the things that we are actually thinking, not only our polite words. A loose tongue is one that is unrestricted, and when we use the phrase "a loose tongue", that means someone is probably saying some things that they shouldn't say, or at the very least, impolite things.

Our next line shows an example of that.

"I say what's on my mind"

The things that are "on your mind" are the things that you are actually thinking about. To say "what's on your mind" is to say the true things you are thinking without any sort of filter. This can be good or bad depending on the situation. So why is our singer saying "what's on her mind"? Well, because she's had enough. Before, she was willing to be polite and not say what she was really thinking. However, the person or persons who are bothering her finally reached her limit. She is no longer interested in being silent. She's "had enough of it". She's going to get a little drunk, and that is going to help her say what's on her mind!

Our next line however, takes a turn for the worse. That is to say, what started out good or neutral, has now suddenly become something bad.

She says "I might do a little time". If you've never heard this phrase, take a moment and try to guess what you think this might mean. Any ideas?

This is a way to say "I might go to jail for a little bit of time". She's expecting that her words, or more likely her actions are going to end up with her getting arrested!

"Doing time" generally refers to prison, but can also refer to jail depending on the context. For those unfamiliar with the difference between jail and prison, jail is the place that you are held by the police while you're waiting on your trial. Sometimes you can be sentenced to stay in jail for lesser crimes as well. Prison is more serious, and generally for people who have longer sentences, or longer periods of punishment. If we say that someone "did some time in prison", we understand that they were probably a more serious criminal. If we say that someone got in a fight and "did some time", we imagine a jail cell instead of a prison, and the sentence lasting a few days instead of a few years.

So what we are meant to think when she says that she might do a little time, especially since she's already mentioned that she's had enough and is planning on getting a little bit drunk, is that she's probably going to get into a fight with someone. Yikes! Not a great result!

This last bit of the song is going to be repeated after every verse. We'll explain it here.

She says "'cause all of my kindness, is taken for weakness".

This is an interesting statement, and a really good phrase we can use in all sorts of other contexts.

If someone "takes" your kindness for weakness, it means that someone looks at the fact that you are kind, and says that it is a weakness. In other words, they think that you aren't strong, either because you are so kind and someone who is that kind can't be strong, or that the kindness itself is a form of weakness. The singer here is saying that people think that she is weak because she is kind, but that they are going to see that it isn't true. Using the word "taken" doesn't really indicate whether they are right or wrong to think that, if she is actually weak or not, but the fact that she is ready to say what's on her mind and potentially do something that might put her in jail, means that she is probably going to show that she is not weak after all.

If she wanted to be a bit more pointed, she could actually say that her kindness is MIStaken for weakness. This means almost the same thing, except it indicates that they are wrong to think that, either through faulty logic or misunderstanding.

So how can we use this in another way? Here's one example. A common issue for new language learners, is that when they speak in their second language, they aren't always able to express everything in the best or most intelligent sounding way. Sometimes, native speakers can think that non-native speakers are dumber than they actually are, simply because they struggle to express themselves properly. You could say that "My lack of vocabulary is mistaken for stupidity".

Can you think of some other examples? Write some down and share them with us!

I think you've probably had enough of verse 1! Join us on the next episode as we dive into the chorus. I'll talk to you then!

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