Aww yeah!
I'm Ethan, your RealLife English Fluency Coach, and today we're talking about one of my favorite topics.
So we are going to show you 10 great songs for you to learn English with.
And not only this we will also teach you some great vocabulary, expressions and pronunciation with the lyrics.
And finally, we will give you some tips so that you can continue learning with songs on your own.
And we'll jump into all that in just a second.
But first I want to let you know that, if you're new here, every week we make fun lessons just like this one, so that you can understand fast speaking natives without getting lost, without missing the jokes and without subtitles.
Like Ndana who says that thanks to our lessons he can now speak English fluently.
So if you want to too, all you have to do is hit that subscribe button and the bell down below, so you don't miss any of our new lessons.
Number 10 Your Song by Elton John.
Tell everybody this is your song.
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done Now, the reason that I chose this one is because I recently watched the movie Rocketman, which is all about Elton John's rise to fame.
Now this was a super fascinating movie and I recommend it to you.
I had no idea that Elton John had such a difficult life before I watched this.
Now, he is still considered one of the top grossing artists of all time, which means that he has sold more albums than almost any other artist alive.
Now, if you're not so much into older music, then you could check out the version that Ellie Goulding did of this song.
But let's take a look at some of the expressions that you will learn in your song.
You can tell everybody this is your song.
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done, I hope you don't mind.
I hope you don't mind That I put you down in the woods.
This is a very common expression used as a way of saying that you desire that something that you are doing or plan to do doesn't bother another person.
Example.
The phrasal verb put down can be used to write something on a piece of paper.
Example She put her name down on the list.
So here Elton is talking about what the lyrics of the song are about, and that is how beautiful life is with his beloved person.
Moss is a small green plant that grows across moist, shady areas.
Here, Elton is literally talking about kicking off the moss growing on the roof.
To get or become.
Cross is an expression used for saying that you are in a slightly frustrated, angry or impatient mood.
By saying this, Elton is saying that he had trouble writing a few of the verses of the song.
Now this is probably my favorite song by this iconic band.
Let's take a look at some of the great expressions that you can learn in this song.
To go she expects.
By saying this phrase, he means that when she was a young girl, she expected that many important things would happen to her.
Similarly, we can use the expression mean the world to say that something is of great importance to us.
It would mean the world to me if you could attend our wedding.
If you try to reach something you stretch out an arm in order to touch or grasp that thing.
By saying this phrase, the singer means that her big plans flew away from her reach, that is, they were no longer possible.
This phrase is said typically when something bad happens.
It means that, no matter what tragic things happen, life will continue and people have to carry on living normally.
Now this is a great song to listen to if you're feeling a bit down that is a little bit sad because it really lifts your spirit.
It breaks you out of your reality and gets you dreaming of what could be.
Now, if you like alternative bands like Coldplay, then I highly recommend that you check out Vera Blue from Australia, who is another alternative artist that I discovered this year and absolutely love.
Number eight, New Rules by Dua Lipa.
Dua Lipa is an up-and-coming artist who has a really unique sound.
Now, what this means is that she is just starting to be recognized for her talent and becoming popular.
Now we chose this song because it is filled with really fantastic connected speech to practice your native pronunciation and understand natives better.
Talking in my sleep at night, making myself crazy, so it's not talking in my sleep, it's talking in my sleep.
Talking in my sleep, talking in my sleep at night, making myself crazy It's not out of my mind.
It's out of my mind.
Out of my mind.
It's not wrote it down, it's wrote it down, wrote it down.
It's not read it out, it's read it out, read it out.
It's not don't let him in, it's don't let him in, don't let him in.
Now if you like new rules another song that I love by her is Don't Start Now.
Hey, would you like to understand natives no matter how fast we speak?
And wouldn't you like to be able to watch your favorite movies and series without the subtitles?
Well, our Fluent with Friends course can help you a ton in reaching your goal and having a lot of fun along the way.
You will learn alongside the first two seasons of the TV series Friends, which various academic studies show is the best series out there for learning English, and you get PDF, power lessons, vocabulary memorization software, access to our Fluency Circle global community and so much more.
And you can try it for free right now with our three-part masterclass.
What are you waiting for?
Just click up here or down in the description below to learn more and sign up.
We look forward to meeting you inside.
Number seven, A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan.
Now Bob Dylan is famous for writing ballads.
That is a song that kind of tells a story it's like poetry.
Now, this makes them really great for learning expressions and figurative language, as well as how to tell a story in English.
You might kind of compare him to some similar modern artists like Taylor Swift.
To stumble means to nearly fall by tripping or missing a step.
When it's misty, there's a heavy fog.
A misty mountain looks like this.
Something crooked is not straight.
For example, you could say that a road through the woods is crooked.
A dozen means twelve.
Example.
Go and buy a dozen eggs.
Here, Bob Dylan is talking about a dozen dead oceans.
As you can imagine, this phrase has a poetic meaning, as oceans can't really be alive or dead.
As it happens with poetry, to understand the meaning of his songs you have to listen carefully through them and try to analyze their meaning to reach your own conclusions.
A graveyard is an area where the dead are buried.
You might have heard a common synonym for it, cemetery.
Now.
He wrote the song in the 60s about all the depressing things that he was seeing happening in the news.
However, you can probably find a lot of relevance in the lyrics of the song even today.
Now, I actually discovered the song because one of my favorite folk artists, Laura Marling, did a really amazing cover of it.
Now, if you like Bob Dylan and his tremendous lyrics, then I highly recommend you check out some similarly famous artists like Joni Mitchell, John Denver and, of course, Laura Marling, who I mentioned before.
Turn the other cheek.
Father Father Father, Help us and some guidance from above.
These people got me, got me questioned.
Now we're moving to a very different genre, but not such a different topic.
This song is really an anthem for global citizens.
Now an anthem is a song that represents a group or a cause.
For example, your country probably has a national anthem.
Now, I like this song because it talks about big global problems and it asks of us if we can love our fellow brothers and sisters of the human race.
It's also great to learn a little bit about American culture, as it makes many different references, as well as to learn some great expressions.
This what you preach.
To preach is to deliver a sermon or a powerful message.
The phrase practice what you preach is quite common and it is used for saying that you should do the thing that you advise other people to do.
In other words, if you practice what you preach, you behave in the way that you encourage other people to behave.
If someone does not practice what they preach, that person is a hypocrite.
This phrase is also very common.
If you turn the other cheek, you let go of the fact that another person hurt you.
You accept it and perhaps forgive them.
If you don't turn the other cheek, you might try to get revenge.
Father is a word used by Christians to refer to God.
In this lyric they are asking for his guidance.
Guidance is the act of providing direction to someone that is lost.
If someone questions you, that person is asking you for information about a certain thing.
In the case of this song, the question is where is the love?
The love we are supposed to have with our brothers and sisters of the human race.
5.
Don't Trust Myself by John Mayer Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
So now we're moving on to one of my favorite artists of all time.
I've seen John Mayer many times in concert and he is an incredibly talented musician.
In fact, he's probably one of the best guitarists alive.
Another song that we've chosen is one of the ones that made me really fall in love with his music, and it's great for you as an English learner, because you can practice connected speech and improve your native pronunciation.
Let's take a look.
No, i'm not the man i used to be.
Lately see.
You met me at an interesting time and if my past is any sign of your future, you should be one before Disappearing sounds.
So he doesn't say used to, he says used to.
He doesn't say and if, he says and if, and if.
He doesn't say just to, he says just to, just to.
American Tea.
He doesn't say at and he says at in, at in.
He doesn't say started he says started, started.
Word reducing.
He doesn't say interesting, he says interesting.
Sound morphing.
He doesn't say let you inside, he says let you inside.
Let you inside.
He doesn't say want you, he says want you.
Want you.
So one of the reasons that I chose John Mayer is because he has done so many different genres throughout his career.
Earlier he did a lot of pop, but then he can transition more into music that he was more passionate about, like blues, rock and folk.
So I'm sure almost any of you can find something that you'll like by him.
And another artist that I like for the same reason is Sia.
Earlier in her career, she actually started with more blues, but nowadays you'll find her doing more motivational pop, which is really great if you're working out.
Number 4 Rain On Me, by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.
Now moving on to another artist who's experimented with a lot of different genres Lady Gaga.
But most of us might think of her more as being like the queen of pop.
Now, one of the things that I really love about Lady Gaga is that, although she is very unique, she's not just a superficial pop star.
She's also a big proponent of the value of kindness.
And she's spoken a lot about this even with the Dalai Lama.
Let's take a look.
So other than being a humanitarian, she's also an extremely talented lyrics writer.
In fact, a lot of you probably saw her recent film A Star Is Born, which has some really powerful music in it, but we've chosen one that is just super fun from her new album and we actually did a recent lesson on it, and we're going to look at a few expressions taken from that lesson.
And then, if you want to continue learning with Lady Gaga, I recommend that you check out the full lesson after finishing this video.
Dry is the opposite of wet.
For example, you can say that a desert is a dry environment.
Let's hear what Lady Gaga said about the lyrics of this verse.
The lyrics that I wrote right here in this studio.
I'd rather be dry, but at least I'm alive.
Rain on me.
This is about like an analog of tears being like the rain.
And you know what it's also a metaphor for is like the amount of drinking that I was doing to numb myself.
I'd rather be dry.
I'd rather not be drinking, but I haven't died yet.
I'm still alive.
Rain on me.
Okay, I'm going to keep on drinking.
This song has many layers.
Rain on is an expression used to describe when something falls or pours down on a person.
As Lady Gaga just explained.
Here, she is describing the tears raining down on her, but also the alcohol that she was consuming.
Number 3 Don't Stop Me Now.
By Queen.
Now did you know Lady Gaga's name actually comes from a song from our next band, Queen.
Well, I was absolutely obsessed with Queen in high school and it's so fantastic seeing that the band has had a renaissance since the film Bohemian Rhapsody came out.
Now we actually did a lesson teaching English with three of their songs, which you can check out after finishing this lesson, but right now we'll just look at an excerpt of it to give you a taste.
If you have yourself something, you take or get something that you're going to enjoy.
I can't wait to get home, turn on the TV, and have myself a cold beer.
I feel alive And the world Floating around in ecstasy so...
To turn something inside out means to pull a piece of clothing or another object so that the inside is facing out.
What he means here though is that he'll completely change the world.
We also sometimes say to turn something upside down to communicate this meaning.
Netflix has turned the movie industry upside down.
I'll share this love I'll find with everyone.
We'll sing it.
So if you like that, then I also highly recommend that you check out the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, because this is really great to learn a little bit about British culture as well as learn more about the history of the band.
Number 2, When The Party's Over by Billie Eilish.
Don't you know I'm no good for you.
I've learned to lose.
You can't afford Tore my shirt to stop you bleeding, But nothing ever stops you leaving.
So, similar to Bob Dylan, Billie Eilish's lyrics usually tell some sort of a story, which makes it really great to pick up some different vocabulary.
However, with When the Party's Over, we're going to actually take a look at some of the connected speech.
I'll only hurt you if you let me Call me friend but keep me closer Sound morphing.
She doesn't say hurt you, she says hurt you.
American Tea.
She doesn't say parties over, she says parties over. dropped sounds.
She doesn't say She doesn't say She says Quiet when I'm coming home.
Now, this song, like many of Billie Eilish's, is pretty slow and it's not too melodic, which makes it perfect to sing along with to improve your pronunciation.
And we made a full lesson with another song of her, No Time To Die, which I highly recommend you check out later if you're a fan of Billie Eilish's.
Number 1 Lose Yourself by Eminem Now.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of rap, but it is one of the best types of music to learn English, because it very closely mimics the rhythm of how natives speak.
In fact, this is one of the songs that I used to use to teach connected speech to my students.
If you practice it over and over again, your native pronunciation will improve a lot, I promise.
In fact, let's actually take a look from a clip of a lesson that we made using the song, so that you can practice rapping along with Eminem and improve your English pronunciation.
We're now going to get some practice on connected speech with the lyrics of this verse by Eminem.
There are three aspects of connected speech that this song is particularly rich on.
First, Eminem links his words a lot.
You'll see this represented in blue.
Second, this song has many instances of he and his.
As we've seen many times in previous lessons, these words often drop the H sound, so they sound like E and is.
Lastly, look out for occurrences of the American tea.
For example, with a regular tea, you say spaghetti.
But with an American tea, it's spaghetti.
We're going to identify the American teas in green.
Now notice how he combines all these aspects of connected speech in but he.
First he drops the H, then he converts the T into a D American T, and then he links the two words, which results in buddy.
No connected speech, but he, with connected speech, buddy.
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs Alright so if you choose any of those songs really you're going to have a lot of fun and you'll learn a lot with them.
And English learners ask all the time what are the best songs to be learning English with?
Now really you should be learning with whatever songs you love.
You can definitely go learn with rap and it will be very effective, but if you hate rap, then you're not going to enjoy the process.
What's more important is that you're cultivating curiosity, that you're not just listening to a song you like, but you're actually taking the time to go look up the lyrics and really understand what they mean and then singing along.
Singing along is so important because it really builds those muscles of articulation.
It doesn't matter if you're a great singer just have fun doing it on your own.
And as promised I have a few quick tips for you.
So the first one is to check out Genius lyrics when you're looking up the lyrics of any song, because there you can find explanations of what the lyrics mean.
Now, a lot of times, just by looking up the words and lyrics, you're not going to fully understand, because there's different references to culture, there's different references to something from the person's personal life, or they're being creative with the language and it's not exactly what it seems to mean.
So this can really help you to go beyond just the language to understand the deeper meaning.
The next is to use a website called lyrics training.
Now this is really fantastic to build your vocabulary and your comprehension with any song.
Now basically what they do is it's kind of like a game.
They take out some of the vocabulary and you basically have to type it in while you're listening to the song playing.
This is a really great challenge and it's a lot of fun.
It's very addictive.
Go check it out.
Now the final tip is in Spotify or whatever platform that you use to listen to music, create a playlist of the songs that you're using to learn English, because then you can listen on the go, when you're in your car, when you're in the shower, when you're cooking dinner, and you can actually be singing along and practicing any time of day.
And finally, if you want a method to learn English with your favorite songs, then I highly recommend that you check out this lesson that we made.
Now, if you've liked the songs that I've suggested to you today and you want to check out more of the music that I'm listening to, then you can check out what I'm currently listening to on Spotify.
I will post a link to that playlist down in the description below.
And I want to know what songs did I miss?
What are your favorite songs to learn English with?
Share them with other English learners by writing them down in the comments below.
Now thanks so much for joining me today.
I hope you've had a lot of fun and that you've gotten some new songs to practice your English with.
And now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English.
Aww yeah!
