English grammar, explained through songs

He, she, it: the -s that gets forgotten

In the present simple the verb changes for one person only — he, she, it — and the change is a single -s: I work, but she works.

After s, sh, ch, x and o it becomes -es: he watches, she goes.

After a consonant + y it becomes -ies: I cry, she cries.

Three verbs go their own way: have → has, do → does, be → is.

Hear it in: Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis) · Can't Stop the Feeling! (Justin Timberlake) · Don't Stand So Close to Me (The Police) · Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) · Hips Don't Lie (Shakira) · Home (Depeche Mode) · I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith) · I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) · No More Lies (Iron Maiden) · Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) · Perfect (Ed Sheeran)

Asking and denying: do, does, did

English needs a helper verb to ask a question and to say no. In the present it is do, or does for he, she, it; in the past it is did for everybody.

Once the helper is there the main verb goes back to its bare form: she goes → does she go?, she doesn’t go. I went → did you go?, I didn’t go.

That is where all those don’t, doesn’t and didn’t in the lyrics come from.

Hear it in: Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis) · Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) · Can't Stop the Feeling! (Justin Timberlake) · Don't Stand So Close to Me (The Police) · Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) · I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith) · I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) · No More Lies (Iron Maiden) · Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) · November Rain (Guns N' Roses) · Perfect (Ed Sheeran)

Be + -ing: what is going on right now

English builds a whole family of tenses with be plus the -ing form, and they all say the same thing: the action is in progress.

Change the be and you change the moment: I am working (now), I was working (then), I will be working (later).

Compare I work every day with I am working right now — the first is a habit, the second is happening as you speak.

Verbs of state stay out of it: you say I know, never I am knowing.

Hear it in: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera) · Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis) · Blinding Lights (The Weeknd) · Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) · Can't Stop the Feeling! (Justin Timberlake) · Don't Stand So Close to Me (The Police) · Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) · I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) · Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) · November Rain (Guns N' Roses)

I saw, or I have seen

Both look at the past, but they do different jobs. The past simple puts the action at a finished moment: I saw her yesterday.

The present perfect — have or has plus the participle — ties the past to now and never gives a date: I have seen her, so I know her face.

The rule that settles most cases: if the sentence names a time that is over (yesterday, last night, in 1999), English uses the past simple.

Hear it in: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera) · Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis) · Candle in the Wind 1997 (Elton John) · Don't Stand So Close to Me (The Police) · Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) · Flowers (Miley Cyrus) · Home (Depeche Mode) · I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith) · Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) · Roar (Katy Perry) · Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye ft. Kimbra)

Adjectives never change

An English adjective has one form and one only: no masculine, no feminine, no plural. A good song, good songs, a good idea.

And it comes BEFORE the noun: a red dress, never a dress red.

When several stack up the usual order is opinion, then size, then age, then colour: a beautiful little red dress.

Hear it in: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera) · Candle in the Wind 1997 (Elton John) · Don't Leave Me This Way (The Communards) · Flowers (Miley Cyrus) · Hey Jude (The Beatles) · Home (Depeche Mode) · It Must Have Been Love (Roxette) · Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) · Poker Face (Lady Gaga) · Roar (Katy Perry) · Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) · Someone Like You (Adele)

Modals: can, must, should, would

Modals never change: no -s in the third person, no -ed, no to. He can, she must, it should.

The verb after them is always bare: I can swim, not «I can to swim».

Questions and negatives are made with the modal itself, never with do: Can you? You shouldn't.

They carry the attitude, not the action: must is obligation, should is advice, might is possibility, would is distance or politeness.

Hear it in: Blinding Lights (The Weeknd) · Can't Stop the Feeling! (Justin Timberlake) · Don't Leave Me This Way (The Communards) · Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) · Flowers (Miley Cyrus) · Hey Jude (The Beatles) · Home (Depeche Mode) · I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith) · It Must Have Been Love (Roxette) · Love the Way You Lie (Eminem ft. Rihanna) ·

Will or going to

GOING TO is for a plan you already had, or for what you can see coming: I'm going to call her. Look at those clouds — it's going to rain.

WILL is for a decision made as you speak, a promise, or a prediction with nothing in front of you: OK, I'll do it.

Both are followed by the bare verb, and both contract: I'll, he'll, gonna.

English also uses the present continuous for arrangements: I'm seeing her tomorrow is perfectly normal.

Hear it in: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera) · Blinding Lights (The Weeknd) · Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) · Don't Leave Me This Way (The Communards) · Hips Don't Lie (Shakira) · I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) · I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (Meat Loaf) · It Wasn't Me (Shaggy) · Keep the Faith (Bon Jovi) · Perfect (Ed Sheeran)

Phrasal verbs: the particle changes everything

A verb plus a small word is a new verb: give up is not give, and take off is not take.

The meaning rarely follows from the parts, so they are learnt whole — this is the hardest single thing about English vocabulary.

Many are separable: turn the light off and turn off the light are both right, but with a pronoun only one is — turn it off, never «turn off it».

Songs are full of them, which is the easiest place to meet them.

Hear it in: Blinding Lights (The Weeknd) · Can't Stop the Feeling! (Justin Timberlake) · Candle in the Wind 1997 (Elton John) · Don't Leave Me This Way (The Communards) · Hey Jude (The Beatles) · Hips Don't Lie (Shakira) · It Must Have Been Love (Roxette) · Keep the Faith (Bon Jovi) · Love the Way You Lie (Eminem ft. Rihanna) · November Rain (Guns N' Roses)

If-sentences: three shapes

FIRST: if + present, will + verb. A real future possibility. If it rains, I'll stay.

SECOND: if + past, would + verb. Unreal or unlikely now. If I had money, I'd go. The past tense here is not about the past.

THIRD: if + had + participle, would have + participle. A past that did not happen. If I had known, I would have called.

The rule that catches everyone: never put will straight after if.

Hear it in: Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) · I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith) · I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) · I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (Meat Loaf) · It Wasn't Me (Shaggy) · Love the Way You Lie (Eminem ft. Rihanna) · November Rain (Guns N' Roses) · Poker Face (Lady Gaga) · Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits) · Taste (Sabrina Carpenter)

Used to: the past that is over

USED TO says something was true for a stretch of the past and is not true now: I used to smoke.

It works for habits and for states alike, and it has no present: for now you just use the present tense.

In questions and negatives it loses the D: Did you use to…? I didn't use to…

Do not confuse it with be used to + -ing, which means «be accustomed to»: I'm used to waking up early.

Hear it in: Roar (Katy Perry) · Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye ft. Kimbra) · Viva la Vida (Coldplay)

There is, and the it that means nothing

THERE IS / THERE ARE announce that something exists: There's a problem. There were two.

The verb agrees with what comes AFTER it, not with there: there is one, there are many.

IT fills the subject slot when there is no real subject: it's raining, it's cold, it's five o'clock. English will not leave that slot empty.

That is the difference: there introduces something new, it points at a situation.

Hear it in: I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (Meat Loaf) · It Wasn't Me (Shaggy) · Keep the Faith (Bon Jovi) · Love the Way You Lie (Eminem ft. Rihanna) · Taste (Sabrina Carpenter) · Viva la Vida (Coldplay) · World in My Eyes (Depeche Mode)

The 's: whose thing it is

English shows possession by adding 's to the OWNER, not with a preposition: my sister's car, not «the car of my sister».

A plural already ending in -s takes only the apostrophe: my parents' house.

It is used above all for people and animals; for objects, of is more natural: the end of the street.

And it looks exactly like the contraction of is: it's means «it is», its means «of it». That apostrophe is the most common mistake in English.

Hear it in: Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis) · Blinding Lights (The Weeknd) · Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) · Candle in the Wind 1997 (Elton John) · Don't Stand So Close to Me (The Police) · Hips Don't Lie (Shakira) · I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (Meat Loaf) · It Must Have Been Love (Roxette) · Keep the Faith (Bon Jovi) · Love the Way You Lie (Eminem ft. Rihanna)

A, the, and nothing at all

A/AN introduces something for the first time, or says what kind of thing it is: I saw a dog. She's a teacher.

THE points at something both of you already know about: the dog was barking.

And very often English uses NO article at all — with plurals and uncountables in general statements: dogs bark, music is loud, love hurts.

That third option is the one other languages do not have, and leaving it out is what sounds wrong.

Hear it in: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera) · Don't Leave Me This Way (The Communards) · Flowers (Miley Cyrus) · Hey Jude (The Beatles) · Home (Depeche Mode) · It Must Have Been Love (Roxette) · It Wasn't Me (Shaggy) · No More Lies (Iron Maiden) · Poker Face (Lady Gaga) · Roar (Katy Perry) · Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

-er, more, and the -est

Short words add -er and -est: older, oldest. Long ones take more and most: more beautiful, most beautiful.

Two syllables sit in the middle, and words ending in -y swap it for -ier: happy, happier, happiest.

Than is the word for comparing, and the superlative almost always wants the: the best day.

The irregulars are few and constant: good/better/best, bad/worse/worst, far/further/furthest.

Hear it in: Candle in the Wind 1997 (Elton John) · Flowers (Miley Cyrus) · Hey Jude (The Beatles) · Hips Don't Lie (Shakira) · I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (Meat Loaf) · It Wasn't Me (Shaggy) · Keep the Faith (Bon Jovi) · No More Lies (Iron Maiden) · Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) · Someone Like You (Adele) · Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits)