Really bad songwriters!

The does/do phenomenon

In school you have learned how to use verbs correctly, namely when using present tense you put an “s” after he/she/it at the end of the verb (she does) and after I/you/we/you/they you don’t (you do).

Well, many people still have difficulties to handle this rule properly and it’s questionable why such an easy rule causes so much confusion. In my opinion incorrect English, e.g. in the internet, is a big influence that can mess up your correct grammar. What’s more, song lyrics are very often wrong as well. I first realized that three to four years ago when I started listening to song lyrics carefully.

In song lyrics verbs are often used in the shorter form, even if it was supposed to be the longer form with the “s” at the end, because otherwise it wouldn’t rhyme or it wouldn’t fit in the rhythm. Even if many people don’t care about that bad grammar in songs, I really do, because listening to a song and suddenly hearing incorrect grammar really makes me angry.

The newest song by Robbie Williams “Candy” is a really good example. In the first line of the refrain he sings “Hey ho here she GO, either a little too high or a little too LOW”, because otherwise it wouldn’t rhyme ;) Really clever Robbie, but it may confuse language learners, so just stick to correct grammar! 

Look, it’s not that hard :)

I try my bestest…, my heart bleeded…, can we conversate?

That’s even more dreadful. Making up words that don’t even exist, I mean…c’mon!
It’s an eyesore typing this text into Word and having these words underlined in red. Don’t you songwriters have Word on your PCs? If not, you should get it.

Gwen Stefani thought that “bestest” would be the superlative of “good” or she just thought making up a superlative of the already existing superlative “best” would be clever.
“When you cheated girl, my heart bleeded girl…” Alright Mr. Timberlake, but you don’t have to invent a new past participle for “bleed”, because there is already one – “bled”.
And last but not least the word “conversate”. What the heck does that mean? Did you mean “talk” or something like that?

Probably the worst title of a song is “The Way I Are” by Timbaland and Keri Hilson. Using “am” instead wouldn’t hurt. It wouldn’t even change the rhythm!

There’s a similar problem with Bryan Adams. “But that’d change if she ever found out about you and I” You and I? Really? Obviously it’s supposed to be “You and me”.

You got the idea?

Songwriters can be really horrible regarding correct grammar in song lyrics. Sometimes it’s better not listening to song lyrics at all. Either they contain a stupid content that doesn’t even make sense (Justin Bieber), or they are written in wrong grammar. Just trust the grammar you read in books and what you’ve learned in school.