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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Song Writing & Lyrics
Verb Disagreement
I have a question regarding versions of the Christmas song "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Paris I've been hearing on the radio lately. I haven't been able to find a reliable source with the original lyrics by Mitchell Paris, but I'm fairly certain that the correct lyrics in the part of the song I'm interested in are "We're snuggled up together like to birds of a feather would be." Phrased this way, the lyrics make sense to me, because the verbs in the two parts of the simile seem to agree--we ARE snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would BE. But I've heard two other versions of these lyrics and I'm wondering if they are grammatically incorrect. "We've snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be" and "We snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be." These two renderings sound incorrect to me, because the verbs in the two parts of the simile don't seem to agree -- we HAVE snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would BE and we SNUGGLED up together like two birds of a feather would BE (instead of, say, we (HAVE) SNUGGLED up together like two birds of a feather would DO). Am I way off base here or am I right in thinking these two versions of the lyrics are grammatically incorrect? If they are incorrect, is there a special term for this kind of mistake or is "verb disagreement" the best way to describe it? Thanks!
Top answer
Aside from the fact that song lyrics often follow the flow of the singer rather than any grammar, there is no reason why any of those versions are not possible. The verb forms (tense and voice) usually depend more on each separate action: We are snuggled up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up]. We have snuggled up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up].
- Aside from the fact that song lyrics often follow the flow of the singer rather than any grammar, there is no reason why any of those versions are not possible.
- The verb forms (tense and voice) usually depend more on each separate action: We are snuggled up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up].
- We have snuggled up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up].
- We will snuggle up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up].
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1 Answers
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Aside from the fact that song lyrics often follow the flow of the singer rather than any grammar, there is no reason why any of those versions are not possible. The verb forms (tense and voice) usually depend more on each separate action:
We are snuggled up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up].
We have snuggled up like 2 birds wo
We are snuggled up like 2 birds would be snuggled up [if they wanted to snuggle up / be snuggled up].
We have snuggled up like 2 birds wo
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