34) Running Up That Hill (Deal with God)

Hello and welcome to Learning English with Lyrics! I am your host Jake, and today we are going to discuss a line from the song "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush. Originally released in 1985, this song has seen a huge surge or boost in popularity this year due to its appearance in the show "Stranger Things".

If you haven't heard the song yet, you can find a link to it in the description of this video. Go ahead and pause the podcast, and come back after you've listened to it.

What did you think? Alright, let's jump into it.

Today I want to talk about the first line from the chorus. The chorus begins with "If I only could, I'd make a deal with God, and I'd get him to swap our places."

This is pretty emotional stuff!

What I want to focus on today is the word "only". You're probably already familiar with the word "only", which usually is talking about a single unit of something. For example, "This is the only apple left in the basket." There is a single apple left, so it is now the "only" apple. That is  to say, there are no others.

We also use the word only in the phrase "only child", to mean that someone has no brothers or sisters.

But there are a few other ways we can use it, that don't deal with quantitites or numbers of things.

Our song presents us with a perfect example.

"If I only could, I'd make a deal with God."

To make this a little simpler, we'll shorten it to "If I only could make a deal with God".

What is this sentence saying? Well, you probably already know that the word "if" is presenting us with a hypothetical or imaginary situation. The words following "If" explain the hypothetical, and the words after explain what would happen, or the results of the hypothetical.

For example, "If we eat too many donuts, we will ruin our dinner."


In our song, she's saying "If I only could make a deal with God" which is our hypothetical, followed by the results of that hypothetical, "I'd get him to swap our places."

The word "could" here means "If I was able to" or "If it was possible". The implication of course that it is not possible for her to make a deal with God.

So what about our word "only"? After all, it seems to make sense without it. We could say, "If I could make a deal with God..."

What does "only" add to this sentence?

The word "only" here adds the idea of a "wish" with perhaps a bit of regret attached.

If I ONLY could do something, means that I wish that I could. It's a longing. A strong desire.

It also carries with it, a sense of regret. I wish that I could. I regret that I cannot. There is sadness here.

Let me give you some examples.

"If I had only read the warning sign, I wouldn't be stuck in this pit!"

"If I had only listened to my parents, I wouldn't be in jail right now!"

"If only I hadn't eaten so many donuts, I would be enjoying my dinner right now!"

In our song, the singer has a strong, sad wish that she would be able to make a deal with God. We can only imagine what kind of sad reason there might be for that!

That's all we have for today! I hope that you've enjoyed this episode, and I hope to talk to you more soon!

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