Ben Lee

Song lyrics aren't supposed to be a fountain of perfect english, but on the other hand some are just so atrocious, they need to get called out. We're not looking for sentance fragments or the word ain't since there are too many instances to count.

Bad Grammar in Song Lyrics, Ben Lee

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Ben Lee's, "I Wish I Was Him"

The Lyrics:

I wish I was him.
He gets the women at his feet.
With all his cool friends.
He gets his records for free.
I wish I was him.
He has no enemies.
I wish I was him.
He's got six different flannel shirts.

Why:

The title line is grammatically incorrect in two ways. First of all, the word "was", in the dependent clause, is referring to conditions contrary to fact. That calls for the subjunctive mood, not the indicative mood. So "was" should be "were" instead. Secondly either "was" or "were" is a form of the verb "to be", and that verb takes predicate nominatives, not direct objects. Predicate nominatives need to be in the nominative case, not the objective case. So "him" needs to be "he" instead. So to be grammatically correct, the line needs to be "I wish I were he." and the title needs to be "I Wish I Were He".

Submitted by: Sabrina Flowe

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