Making fun of music, one song at a time. Since the year 2000.
Check out the two amIright misheard lyrics books including one book devoted to misheard lyrics of the 1980s.
(Toggle Right Side Navigation)

Real Lyrics -> Bad Grammar in Song Lyrics -> Bachman Turner Overdrive

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, Bachman Turner Overdrive

Check out the index.


20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Bachman-Turner Overdrive album at Amazon.com
Bachman Turner Overdrive's, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"
The Lyrics:
You ain't seen nothing yet.
Why:
I know that they at least USED TO teach in school that "ain't" is not a grammatically correct word. Its use has increased nonetheless. But even if it has been gramatically sanctioned by now, "ain't seen nothing" is still a double negative. making it incorrect English. Another issue to consider is whether the word "ain't' in its increasing acceptedness should be allowed to cover the territory of "haven't" as well as that of "isn't", "aren't" or "am not". The usual colloquial function of "ain't" is as a negative form of the verb "to be". But in a few phrases, like in this song's title line, it becomes a negative form of the verb "to have", since the standard way of stating the line is "You haven't seen anything yet", not "You aren't seen anything yet". So it is fair to question, however acceptable "ain't" becomes in lieu of "am not", "aren't" or "isn't", should it be further stretched to sometimes mean "haven't" or "hasn't"?
Submitted by: Penelope Beckinsale

New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.

Submissions

Would you like to Submit Some Lyrics for a Song We're always looking for more entries.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: amIright.com makes no claims to the accuracy of the correct lyrics. All correct lyrics are copyrighted, amIright.com does not claim ownership of the original lyrics.