GRAMMAR ERRORS

What You Can Learn from These

4 Lyric Mistakes

in Your

FAVORITE SONGS

INTRODUCTION“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

grammatical 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, to those people, I say, “Phooey!” 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.

INTRODUCTION

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.

INTRODUCTIONAfter all, what would you rather belt out

passionately: “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 don’t think so.

Still, since you’re reading this, I have to assume

that you’ve come here to learn about grammatical

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 VS. SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS

The Culprit:

The Songs:

Lady Gaga

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.

OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS

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.”

OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS

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:

The Song:

Elvis Presley

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 first 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 is not true or something that hasn’t

happened/isn’t going to happen (like a wish, a desire, or a

possible future event). In this case, the claims that the “hound

dog” was high class were untrue: hence, the need for the

subjunctive were.

MOODY VERBS

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 of 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 Song:

The Rolling Stones

(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.

DOUBLE NEGATIVES

WHY WE FORGIVE THE STONES

We forgive The 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, what

fun would rock stars be if they followed all

the rules?

#4. “LAY” VS. “LIE”

The Culprit:

The Song:

Bob Dylan

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. 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?

“LAY” VS. “LIE”

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 were 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 their

burdens down, or you can lay something on me. But when I’m sleepy, I have to 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 doesn't really change the meaning of what a person is

trying to say, so it’s generally an acceptable error to make when speaking.

The problem Dylan may have been facing here is 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 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 THOUGHTSI’ve used some specific examples for the sake of this SlideShare, 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.

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