VOA · Everyday Grammar
Advanced · C1learner speed4:462024-02-27public domain
Everyday Grammar digs into one grammar topic per episode — verb tenses, prepositions, sentence patterns — with plenty of spoken examples. Because you are listening to language about language, it doubles as grammar review while you train your ears.
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01Every year, the Recording Academy in the United States gives awards to the performers and songwriters with the most outstanding achievements from the year before.
02The Academy calls those awards the Grammys.
03At the 2024 Grammy Awards, the Song of the Year Award went to Miley Cyrus for her song Flowers.
04In today's lesson, we will look at some grammar rules Cyrus follows in the song and one rule she breaks.
05The song begins with the story of a breakup.
06Well, I didn't want to leave you.
07I didn't want to fight.
08I started to cry, then remembered I.
09In this first part, Cyrus uses an informal adverb, kinda, to describe the dream she and her partner had.
10In formal language, she would say, it was the kind of dream that can't be sold.
11We expect to hear informal language in songs, so this is not really breaking any rules.
12She follows with another informal word, the verb form wanna, in I didn't want to leave you.
13I didn't want to lie.
14It is very common to hear this pronunciation in spoken English of the words want to.
15Next, we get to where Cyrus follows and breaks the same rule.
16She describes the expressive actions of a romantic partner that she can do for herself.
17Her song tells us about the kinds of things a romantic partner might do, but Cyrus says she, as an independent woman, can do those things without the partner.
18Listen for the reflexive pronoun myself in these lines.
19Oh, I can buy myself flowers Write my name in the sand Talk to myself for hours Say things you don't understand Oh, I can take myself dancing I can hold my own hands Yeah, I can love me better than You can Did you catch the place where she broke the rule about when to use a reflexive pronoun?
20The rule is, when the object and the subject of the verb are the same, use the reflexive pronoun to describe the object.
21Cyrus follows this rule when she sings, I can buy myself flowers Talk to myself for hours And, I can take myself dancing But she breaks it when she sings, I can love me better than you can Let's take a moment for a little quiz here.
22Can you say or sing the same line with the reflexive pronoun?
23Take a moment so you can think.
24Following the rule, this should be, I can love myself better than you can Cyrus probably uses me to match the beat of the music Often, that is more important to singers than following grammar rules In one line of the song, Cyrus uses the adjective own to refer to things belonging to herself Let's listen to that line Here, own is correct because it makes the action clear If she had not used own, we might not understand She could be singing about holding her hand up, for example Hold my own hand makes it clear to us that she is using one hand to hold another What do you think of Miley Cyrus' song?
25Are there any singers in your country who sing about their independence in this way?
26Write to us at learningenglish at voanews.com and tell us about them And that's Everyday Grammar I'm Jill Robbins
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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