Learn Indefinite Pronouns with 'Fast Car'

01On today's Everyday Grammar, we are going to look at things that are different from each other.

02In other words, contrasts.

03Let's start.

04At the 2024 Grammy Awards, one performance got the attention of many different sorts of music fans.

05It was the country music singer Luke Combs, singing with singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman.

06Together, they sang Fast Car, a song that had helped Chapman win a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

07You can listen to the song on the Grammys' website.

08The song won the Country Music Association Awards Prize for Country Song of the Year in 2023.

09Chapman is the first black songwriter to win this award.

10Luke Combs recorded this song in 2023.

11He invited Chapman to sing it with him at the Grammy Awards show in February.

12In today's lesson, we will look at some of the words in this song and explore how they tell the story of two people.

13The two tried to find the American dream.

14Good jobs, a nice home, and children.

15We will especially learn about the meanings of some indefinite pronouns and how they can be used to make contrasts.

16In the beginning of the song, Chapman sings about going someplace in a fast car.

17In this part, we hear pairs of contrasting words.

18The first pair is anywhere and somewhere.

19She says she wants a ticket to anywhere, which means there is no exact place she wants to go.

20A similar word appears in the line, any place is better.

21Then she says that together, she and her friend with the fast car can get somewhere.

22To get somewhere means to succeed or reach a goal.

23The next pair of contrasting words is nothing and something.

24The first expression is that she has nothing to lose.

25That means she will not suffer if what she tries to do fails.

26Again, speaking of what the young couple can do together, she sings, Maybe we'll make something.

27When we use something as an indefinite pronoun, it can mean a thing that is quite good, as in the expression, That's really something.

28Moving on to the next part of the song, we find the singer is working at a low-paying job and wants to escape.

29You get a fast car I got a plan to get us out of here Been working at the convenience store Managed to save just a little bit of money Won't have to drive too far Just across the border and into the city You and I can both get jobs And finally see what it means to be living Tracy Chapman has said she wrote the song about the lives of her parents.

30As a young couple, they struggled to create the kinds of lives they dreamed of.

31Listen for the words in the next part that contrast their dream with the reality of living in a shelter, a place for people without a home in which to live.

32I know things will get better You'll find work and I'll get promoted And we'll move out of the shelter Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs Finally, we learn through Chapman's song that the young woman did not finish her education because she stayed home to take care of her sick father.

33The couple seems to continue to struggle in the last part of the song, but they have good memories of their younger years.

34Listen for the indefinite pronoun someone here.

35To be someone means to be an important person.

36Be someone Be someone Be someone Be someone Listening to Tracy Chapman's song, we find that indefinite pronouns can help express two ideas related to the American dream.

37To make something and to be someone.

38How do you express your own dreams for the future?

39Email us at learningenglish at voanews.com or write to us in the comments.

40And that's Everyday Grammar.

41I'm Jill Robbins.