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Grammar Errors in Your Favorite Songs

What You Can Learn from These 4 Lyric Mistakes

“Music is the universal language of mankind,” according to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But does the same logic apply to lyrics? What about lyrics riddled with grammatical errors?

Some people have a hard time listening to grammar errors in songs. These people believe that rules are rules, and that artists should somehow figure out a way to make tricky lines work without using double negatives or bending the rules of verb moods. Well, I say “Phooey” to those people. That’s right, I just used a slang word! You know why? Because I’m speaking in a casual (rather than formal) tone—the main concern is that I adequately convey my meaning.

When it comes to language, there is a time and a place for everything. When you’re writing a casual blog post, you don’t need to be as strict with your language usage as you do when you’re writing a formal paper. When you’re speaking, you don’t need to follow the rules the same way that you do when you’re writing, and when you’re singing a song, you can toss caution to the wind and make your own rules, as long as the result sounds good. It’s true that song lyrics often have very obvious grammatical errors, but what would you rather passionately belt along to “Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone” or the much more laborious “There is no sunshine when she’s gone”? You could even make the sentence longer: “There is not any sunshine while she is away.” Is that what you want? To make classic songs unsingable? I didn’t think so.

Still, this is a grammar blog, and as such, I have to assume that you’ve come here to learn about grammar rules. So let’s take a look at some examples of grammatical errors in song lyrics and see what lessons we can learn from them.

1. Objective versus Subjective Pronouns

The culprit: Lady Gaga

The songs: “Bad Romance,” “You and I”

In her megahit “Bad Romance,” Gaga sings: “I want your love and/I want your revenge/You and me could write a bad romance.” As I’m sure your grandmother has pointed out to you hundreds of times, this should be “you and I.” Ironically, Gaga makes the opposite error in her other single, which is actually titled “You and I“: “Somethin’, somethin’ about my cool Nebraska guy/Yeah something about, baby, you and I.”

Gaga has misused her pronouns in both of these songs. The pronoun I is used when the I in question is the subject of the sentence, while the pronoun me is used when the me that is referred to is the object of the sentence.

The easiest way to remember when to use I versus when to use me is to remove the other noun or pronoun from the sentence. So, in the case of “Bad Romance,” we would test this by saying “I want your revenge/Me could write a bad romance.” When the lyric is written like this, it becomes clear that the correct pronoun here is I, because I is the subject of the sentence in question. Conversely, for “You and I,” we can test the lyric by saying “Somethin’ about, baby, I.” You would never say “something about I.” This should be “something about me,” because me is the object of the sentence. The lyric should thus be “something about, baby, you and me.”

Why we forgive Gaga: First, we can forgive Gaga because Mother Monster is not the first songwriter to make this mistake. Other artists with songs incorrectly named “You and I” include Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, and many more. For most of these songs, I has been chosen over me for the sake of rhyming.

This is also a common error that people make in everyday speech, probably because somewhere down the grammar line someone started the rumor that it’s never correct to say “you and me.” As for the “Bad Romance” error, we’re going to give Gaga some credit and say she purposefully used bad grammar in her lyric about a bad romance. Plus, you know, this line had to fit in with the rest of the song’s lyrics: “Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah/Roma-ro-ma-ma/Ga-ga-oo-la-lah.” Much words. Very lyric.

2. Moody Verbs

The culprit: Elvis Presley

The song: “Hound Dog”

“When they said you was high class, well that was just a lie…” And when they said Elvis was a grammar nerd, well, that was clearly just a lie as well. The problem with this lyric is the use of the word was. The word were should be used here instead, but why? Because this sentence calls for the subjunctive mood of the verb to be. The subjunctive mood is used when referring to something that hasn’t happened/isn’t going to happen (like a wish, a desire, or a possible future event), or to something that is not true. In this case, the claims that the “hound dog” was high class were untrue, hence the need for the subjunctive were.

Why we forgive Elvis: Have you ever watched a late-1950s video of Elvis Presley performing “Hound Dog”? Have you seen this man dance? Have you seen the way his legs move as if independent from his body? I’m sure you haven’t, because if you had, you wouldn’t be concerned with such trifles as incorrect verb moods in his lyrics. Come on now, people—priorities!

3. Double Negatives

The culprit: The Rolling Stones

The song: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
What’s wrong with saying “I can’t get no satisfaction“? Nothing, as long as your name is Mick Jagger and you’re singing this classic rock song. The grammatical problem with this lyric is the use of the double negative. If the Stones are not getting “no satisfaction,” does this mean they are indeed getting some satisfaction? This unclear meaning is the reason why double negatives are generally not acceptable in written language, though the intended meaning of these statements is usually clear enough in a colloquial spoken context.

Why we forgive The Rolling Stones: Because saying “I can’t get any satisfaction” just doesn’t have the same punch to it, and because this is widely considered to be one of the greatest songs of all time. Besides that, what fun would rock stars be if they followed all the rules?

4. Lay versus Lie

The culprit: Bob Dylan

The song: “Lay Lady Lay”

In this oft-covered classic, Dylan entreats his lady not to leave. “Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed,” he croons over and over again. The problem here? Dylan is repeatedly using the wrong word. Technically speaking, the lyrics here should be “Lie, lady, lie, lie across my big brass bed.” Why is this?

The word lay should only be used when a direct object is involved. An easier way to think of this is to remember that you have to be talking about the act of laying something, usually as in laying something down. If Dylan were laying his lady down, or if he was asking her to lay herself down, his lyrics would be correct. On a side note, Bon Jovi clearly knew what’s up here, as evidenced by the lyrics of their song “Bed of Roses”: “I wanna lay you down on a bed of roses.” So, Jon Bon Jovi can lay his lady down on a bed of roses, someone can lay down their arms, or you can lay something on me. But when I’m sleepy, I have to go lie down.

Why we forgive Bob: For one thing, this is a very common error in spoken language. It’s one of those mistakes that do not really change the intended meaning of what a person is trying to say, so it’s generally an acceptable error to make when speaking. The problem that we’re sure Dylan was facing here was the fact that the proper word choice, lie, has more than one meaning. To lie means to recline or rest, yes, but it also means saying something that’s not true. Dylan probably didn’t want people to think that he was inviting a big fat liar to hang out in his big brass bed with him, so he opted to use the wrong word because it actually gave the song a clearer meaning.

Final Thoughts

I’ve used some specific examples for the sake of this article, but in reality, these same errors occur in songs all the time. You can choose to harp incessantly on the artists who make these errors in their music, or you can pull an Adele Dazeem and let it go. If you can’t listen to the magical ballad that is “Let It Go” without criticizing the lyrics, I don’t think I can help you.

 

Different Methods of Teaching Grammar

English grammar is notoriously difficult to learn for both native and second-language speakers. There are so many intricacies, obscure rules, and exceptions that it comes as no surprise that different generations of teachers have used various approaches to teaching grammar to train literate English writers. In the past, memorization-based techniques that relied on repetition slowly gave way to more creative methods. Today, we live in a society that prizes literacy and is willing to adapt to more effective methods to achieve the best results in teaching grammar.

Diagramming Sentences

One of the older forms of teaching grammar, diagramming sentences, first appeared in the 19th century. This method involves visually mapping the structures of and relationships between different aspects of a sentence. Especially helpful for visual learners, this method disappeared from modern teaching at least 30 years ago. Different forms of diagramming are used to visualize sentences, from the Reed-Kellogg System to dependency grammar, but all organize the functions of a sentence in a way that illustrates the grammatical relationships between words. More recently, diagramming sentences has had a small pop-culture resurgence in prints of famous opening sentences and websites that allow you to diagram to your heart’s content.

Learning Through Writing

This method is often used in schools in the U.S. and Canada. Students are encouraged to explore language through creative writing and reading, picking up correct grammar usage along the way. If there are specific problems with certain grammatical rules, these are covered in a more structured lesson. An emphasis is now being placed upon language acquisition over language learning, as it has been observed that learning grammar by memorization does not work well and that students are better able to recognize and understand grammatical rules when lessons are more interactive (i.e., they have to apply these rules in their own writing). Repeated practice is also important and easily achieved through creative or personal writing exercises. This article, posted by The Atlantic, suggests that to better equip future adult writers, teachers in the 21st century should consider dropping outdated grammar teaching techniques in early education and opt for learning through writing techniques.

Inductive Teaching

The inductive method of teaching grammar involves presenting several examples that illustrate a specific concept and expecting students to notice how the concept works from these examples. No explanation of the concept is given beforehand, and the expectation is that students learn to recognize the rules of grammar in a more natural way during their own reading and writing. Discovering grammar and visualizing how these rules work in a sentence allow for easier retention of the concept than if the students were given an explanation that was disconnected from examples of the concept. The main goal of the inductive teaching method is the retention of grammar concepts, with teachers using techniques that are known to work cognitively and make an impression on students’ contextual memory.

Deductive Teaching

The deductive method of teaching grammar is an approach that focuses on instruction before practice. A teacher gives students an in-depth explanation of a grammatical concept before they encounter the same grammatical concept in their own writing. After the lesson, students are expected to practice what they have just been shown in a mechanical way, through worksheets and exercises. This type of teaching, though common, has many people—including teachers—rethinking such methods, as more post-secondary level students are revealing sub-par literacy skills in adulthood. As one former teacher states, deductive teaching methods drive many students away from writing because of the tediousness of rote learning and teacher-centered approaches.

Interactive Teaching

Another method of teaching grammar is to incorporate interactivity into lessons. Using games to teach grammar not only engages students but also helps them to remember what they’ve learned. This method allows teachers to tailor their lessons to the different learning styles of students. For instance, each student can be given a large flashcard with a word on it, and the students must physically arrange themselves into a proper sentence. Other games can include word puzzles or fun online quizzes.

Over the years, many methods have been developed for teaching grammar and have been built upon, abandoned, or combined, all with the same goal in mind—teaching students how to communicate effectively and understand how to use the English language. Because of the grammatical complexity of English, each method has its pros and cons. Some lessons are less likely to be remembered, while others may require more in-depth explanation and practice. Regardless of how grammar is taught, a well-rounded understanding of English grammar is the most important factor in improving the literacy of students.

Top 10 Grammar Rules You Can’t Believe You Didn’t Learn

Grammar is an exhaustive subject, with layers of rules from the basic to the obscure. Teaching styles have changed over the past century, and common rules your grandmother learned through memorization and practice could be a mystery to younger generations encouraged to stray from those rules and let their creativity flow. Below are the top 10 grammar rules that you may not have learned until university.

1. A comma and a coordinating conjunction should be used to combine two independent clauses.

What do you call a series of ideas linked by only a comma? A run-on sentence (or comma splice)! This mistake runs rampant in academic writing, regardless of how well the writer thinks he or she knows English. Even worse is that a lot of people are not taught the difference between independent and dependent clauses before attending university, when writing—and writing well—becomes a fact of life.

How detrimental is the comma splice? Run-on sentences detract from the readability and flow of any writing. Arguments can quickly become convoluted and incomprehensible when too many ideas are introduced in one long sentence. When writing needs to be clear and concise, thoughts should be organized using punctuation in all the right places.

Do this:

Holiday shopping is stressful for a lot of people, but some families budget for it.

Not this:

A snowy, cold winter is common in Canada, people sometimes have a hard time keeping up with shoveling, there are storms when the snow gets so high that you cannot make it out of your driveway for days!

2. A semicolon is most often used to separate two independent, closely related clauses.

The rules for using a semicolon are clearly unknown to many people who reach the university level. Writers use this commonly misunderstood form of punctuation in haphazard, mysterious ways. A semicolon is often mistaken for a colon, is used in place of the comma, or even appears at the end of sentences in truly odd situations.

Do this:

Reality TV is a favorite pastime for many people; however, those who hate reality TV have a lot of complaints.

Not this:

Reality TV is a favorite pastime for many people. However; those who hate reality TV have a lot of complaints.

3. A colon is used after a complete sentence to introduce a word, phrase, clause, list, or quotation.

The colon, often mistaken for or incorrectly replaced with the semicolon, has several uses that remain elusive to many writers. The colon is all too often forgotten completely or found in the wrong places at the wrong times.

Do this:

We must remember to buy the following groceries: eggs, milk, flour, and apples.

Not this:

We must remember to buy the following groceries eggs, milk, flour, and apples.

4. A list or comparison of equally significant ideas should use the same grammatical pattern.

Items in a series need to have a parallel structure that uses equal grammatical units. This means that nouns should follow nouns, and subordinate clauses should follow subordinate clauses. If you use a certain form of a verb in each segment of the series, it should be the same in each segment.

Do this:

Her car needed its tires rotated, oil changed, and windshield wipers replaced.

Not this:

Her car needed its tires rotated, oil changing, and its windshield wipers to be replaced.

5. Do not split your infinitives in formal writing.

The infinitive split is a common grammatical mistake that many people don’t even realize they are making. An infinitive is the most basic form of a verb that is not bound by a particular subject or tense, as in “to type.” What writers often do is insert a modifier between the “to” and its accompanying verb—a definite grammar no-no in formal writing (although this rule is disputed in more casual writing). To keep sentences clear, never split your infinitives.

Do this:

I’ll need my best tennis shoes if I’m going to run quickly.

Not this:

I’ll need my best tennis shoes if I’m going to quickly run.

6. A hyphen connects, an en dash separates numbers in a sequence, and an em dash offsets nonessential information from the rest of a sentence.

Where were you when you discovered that a dash isn’t just a dash and that a hyphen belongs in a particular place and not in others? Really, there are three separate forms of punctuation that all look like a dash: the hyphen (-), the en dash (–), and the em dash (—). A hyphen is used to connect compound adjectives, such as blue-green, or compound verbs, such as freeze-dried. It is also used in modifying compounds when modifiers come before a noun, such as high-speed connection.

En dashes, however, are the proper punctuation to use when displaying a range of numbers, like so: 5–10. Em dashes can be used much like a comma to offset nonessential information—information that doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence but does add description.

7. Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

The difference between an adjective and an adverb seems lost on many writers who never learned the grammatical difference. An adjective is a word that modifies only a noun, whereas an adverb is a word that usually ends in “ly” and modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Knowing these differences is important when you need to keep your writing concise, as most adverbs can be removed from a sentence without changing the meaning.

Adjective:

The large, purple flowers on the orchid were wilting.

Adverb:

The large, purple flowers on the orchid were slowly wilting.

8. “I.e.” stands for “that is,” and “e.g.” stands for “for example.”

Many people believe that i.e. and e.g. can be used interchangeably. Both are abbreviations of Latin terms, but each is used in a specific situation. The first, i.e., stands for the Latin term id est, whereas e.g. stands for exempli gratia. I.e. should be used to offer more information or to restate an idea, and e.g. should be used to include an example.

I.e.:

“There are three main methods of motor transportation in the city (i.e., if you can’t afford taxis, try the subway or bus).”

E.g.:

The bake sale included a huge variety of treats (e.g., cookies, pies, cakes, and pastries).

9. Explain an acronym in full the first time it appears. Every usage afterward should be the acronym.

Acronyms can also be mysterious to a writer who doesn’t know the correct grammatical usage. Just remember, an acronym needs to be written out fully the first time it appears in a writing and then used consistently throughout the rest of the writing each time the term appears.

First use:

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was founded in England in 1824.

Second use:

The SPCA is dedicated to protecting animal welfare and finding homes for unwanted animals.

10. A modifier (a word, phrase, or clause that describes something else) goes next to the thing it modifies.

Misplacing your modifier can lead to some very confused readers. A sentence can sound awkward or the meaning can be changed completely if a word, phrase, or clause is separated from the word it describes.

Do this:

I picked up my new hamster, Bert, who was small and fluffy.

Not this:

Small and fluffy, I picked up my new hamster, Bert.

Even if you didn’t learn them until university, remembering these top 10 grammar rules is sure to strengthen your writing and help you earn better grades.

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