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, Phish
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Me and Arpuah
We couldn't care fewer
I see the rhyme, but no one, and I do mean NO-ONE, ever says "We couldn't care fewer." (Obviously, it should be "...care LESS")
Submitted by: Jonathan S.
Phish's,
"Bouncing Around the Room"
. . . and faintly bouncing around the room
The echo of whomever spoke.
It should be "whoever spoke." The use of the verb "spoke" makes "whoever" the object of the sentence, not the subject.
Submitted by: Sam Youno
Phish's,
"Bouncing Around the Room"
...And faintly bouncing around the room the echo of whomever
spoke...
Whomever should be whoever. If one rewrites this segment of the lyrics as the sentence "The echo of whoever spoke was faintly bouncing around the room," one can see that there are two verbs, "spoke" and "bouncing" (or "was bouncing" if one includes the auxiliary verb). Every verb needs a subject. In this sentence, the subject of "bouncing" is "echo," and the subject of "spoke" is "whoever." One can not use the object form "whomever" in the subject position. Perhaps the misuse was for the purpose of artistic expression, but if the misuse was an unintentional mistake, I believe the error may be due to the preposition "of." While it is true that every preposition must be followed by an object, an entire clause may serve as an object. If a clause follows a preposition, by definition, there must be a verb in that clause (as a clause must contain a subject and verb by definition). In this case, the entire clause "whoever spoke" serves as the object of the preposition "of." And as mentioned before, as all verbs need a subject, so does the verb "spoke" in our case; "whoever" is that subject.
Submitted by: Jon Strauss
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