Grammar with a song!
We don’t have to just study grammar from a book or do endless exercises to practice it.
Songs are a great source of grammar too. And, of course, are much more fun!
Songs are easily available and besides offering you authentic listening practice, they provide vocabulary, grammar and cultural aspects of the language you are learning. The language used is always real – full of contemporary vocabulary, phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions.
Why not find the text of your favourite English song and, not only look at the vocabulary, but look at the song from a grammar point of view too. Does it refer to the present or the past? Or maybe it talks about something that ‘they’ hope will happen in the future. Does it have a conditional sentence or use a lot of modals? Does it have a lot of abbreviations? Do you know the other forms of the verbs they use?
I’ve prepared a worksheet for you on a song that is great for studying and practicing the structure of the second conditional.The song is “If I were a boy…” by Beyonce.
Just click on DOWNLOADS above to get the worksheet and the link to the video on Youtube is in the song title.
Do you remember when to use the second conditional?
We use it to talk about actions or events that are possible but not very probable; to hypothesise.
i.e. “If I won the lottery, I would buy a big house.”
As we all know, it is, of course, possible to win the lottery but how probable is it?
Enjoy learning (and of course the song)!
Fiona 😉
PS. You can review the grammar structure of the second conditional in detail in English Keys – Grammar 31. If you don’t have this English Key, let me know and I’ll send it to you.
