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Ipodmini Posted 20 years ago
Vocabulary

Pop songs, Learning English by listining music

Hi, everyone:-)

I think it's a great idea to learn english by listinging to the music, such as english songs. However, I feel some part of lyrics are just far from easy to understand. In part, it's because of omitted lines for being adaptive to songs, etc. I wonder how could I improve my understanding of lyrics?

Here is a part from a song named sitting down, which I just cannot quite understand, especially the parts in red.

I'm sitting down here
But hey you can't see me
Kinda invisible
You don't sense my stay
Not really hiding, not like a shadow
Just thought I would join you for one day



I hope I don't ask too much:-)
  

Top answer

Learning English by listening to songs is not always the best path. Like you said, there are often lines or words that are omitted. A lot of lyrics are written to fit the music.

  • Learning English by listening to songs is not always the best path.
  • Like you said, there are often lines or words that are omitted.
  • A lot of lyrics are written to fit the music.
  • This causes many lines in certain songs to be grammatically poor.
  • If you randomly listen to any song out there, you may learn the wrong things.
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5 Answers
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Learning English by listening to songs is not always the best path. Like you said, there are often lines or words that are omitted. A lot of lyrics are written to fit the music. This causes many lines in certain songs to be grammatically poor. If you randomly listen to any song out there, you may learn the wrong things.

You'll have to ask some of your most trusted native English speakers
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As Arvsworld wrote, lyrics can be metaphor-heavy. We get a lot of questions about lyric meaning on these boards, and the only person that could truly define the song's lyrics is the author.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't ask, but expect that sometimes the answer will be "non-standard idiom", and your guess is as good as ours.
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I see, thanks you all the same!
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Hi hope this helps -

not like a shadow describes how he ( the singer) is sitting . . .

the person the singer is sitting near to cannot see or sense ( ie smell, taste, touch) the fact that the singer is sitting near him
by elaborating that the singer is not hiding when he is sitting and is not like a shadow when he is sitting, the singer is telling us that he is in fact no

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