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RichardGHP
Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 2327
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 Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| guitarroker wrote: | | laupow17 wrote: | | By the way, "faster than I" is correct. I know someone else said that, but just so that he doesn't seem like the only person who says so, I thought I'd throw that in. |
Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't it need to be "faster than I am" to be correct? You don't usually say "I'm better than he", you say "I'm better than he is". |
Now, normally spelling as opposed to grammar is my forte, but this is where I step in and say that the correct way to write this lyric depends on the context of the song. "I am better than he" sounds more old-fashioned, something that might come out of Shakespeare, Dickens, or something as early as the Bible. As the centuries have passed, the amount of words in the lexicon and grammatical rules have increased. Hence, the proper way to write the lyric today would in fact be "I'm better than he is".
Again, though, this depends entirely on the context of the song. Does he want the next line to rhyme with "he"? Is he going for for an old-fashioned sound? Or a more modern one? |
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guitarroker
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 1993
Location: Iceland
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| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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| RichardGHP wrote: | | guitarroker wrote: | | laupow17 wrote: | | By the way, "faster than I" is correct. I know someone else said that, but just so that he doesn't seem like the only person who says so, I thought I'd throw that in. |
Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't it need to be "faster than I am" to be correct? You don't usually say "I'm better than he", you say "I'm better than he is". |
Now, normally spelling as opposed to grammar is my forte, but this is where I step in and say that the correct way to write this lyric depends on the context of the song. "I am better than he" sounds more old-fashioned, something that might come out of Shakespeare, Dickens, or something as early as the Bible. As the centuries have passed, the amount of words in the lexicon and grammatical rules have increased. Hence, the proper way to write the lyric today would in fact be "I'm better than he is".
Again, though, this depends entirely on the context of the song. Does he want the next line to rhyme with "he"? Is he going for for an old-fashioned sound? Or a more modern one? |
Yeah, technically speaking the lyric isn't incorrect, but I'm not buying that Nickelback were going for an old-fashioned style. For example the word "awesome" has an entirely different meaning in pop culture than it did a hundred years ago. Does that make using the word awesome as "awe-inspiring" or even "inspiring an overwhelming feeling of fear" (archaic) wrong? No, but outdated, especially since most of Nickelback's other lyrics are pretty modern. There are a ton of ways to rhyme. Breaking grammatical rules is a pretty poor way to do it, I can guarantee there is nine times out of ten a better, more correct way to make the sentences rhyme.
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laupow17
Joined: 17 Jun 2008
Posts: 591
Location: Tuscaloosa, AL
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| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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Well, "faster than I am" certainly sounds a lot better to our ears than "faster than I", but that doesn't make Nickelback's lyrics wrong (whew... it's painful to have to defend Nickelback in any circumstance.) Even the incorrect "Faster than me" sounds better, actually, than "faster than I". The problem is that "faster than I" makes you sound like a monumental douche. In speech "faster than I am" is ideal, toeing the strict grammatical line while avoiding the potential douchebag-association factor. Considering we are talking about lyrics though, it's arguable that the extra syllable would have thrown off the song's rhythm.
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machchunk
Joined: 28 Oct 2006
Posts: 3829
Location: Pasco, WA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:38 am Post subject: |
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| eyewin8 wrote: |
The song is called "Buy U a Drank" by T-Pain. |
So? Damon Albarn ended up having to change the name of the Gorillaz song "It's There" to "DARE" because of Shaun Ryder's accent.
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eyewin8
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 2790
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:40 am Post subject: |
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| machchunk wrote: | | eyewin8 wrote: |
The song is called "Buy U a Drank" by T-Pain. |
So? Damon Albarn ended up having to change the name of the Gorillaz song "It's There" to "DARE" because of Shaun Ryder's accent. |
That is irrelevant, and there's also rumors that it was a joke. Drank in the sense that T-Pain used it wouldn't be the past tense of drink, but rather the rap and R&B usage of it. For example, "I'm gonna get my drank on", would mean that someone is going to get drunk. There is also purple drank, a mixture of Sprite and grape cough syrup. Also, if you think T-Pain wanted to be correct with his song title, wouldn't he use "You" instead of "U"?
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machchunk
Joined: 28 Oct 2006
Posts: 3829
Location: Pasco, WA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:10 am Post subject: |
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I'm not disagreeing with you, just saying the title being one way doesn't mean shit when you talk about how it was written. Also, chatspeak and Ebonics are two different things.
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youhas 
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Posts: 3015
Location: Santa Clara, CA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| styxmaniac wrote: | "I" is the correct word for proper grammar. It really means "Time is going by so much faster than I (am going). "Than I" is an adverb clause modifying the adjective "faster." All clauses, whether subordinate or independent, must have both a subject and a verb, so by saying "than me," you are saying "than me am going." These are also known as elliptical clauses.
Oh, and poetic license dictates that none of what is written above this matters. |
styxmaniac pretty succinctly expressed all relevant thoughts on that line that I was going to share.  While we're on the topic of grammatical song lyrics:
I wish that more artists actually employed the subjunctive tense on those relatively few occasions when it comes up. Generally speaking, that usually just means replacing out "I wish I was" with "I wish I were". "Were" has the same number of syllables as "was", rarely comes at the end of a sentence to impact rhyme schemes... and is pretty much universally butchered all the same. And has been for decades, from Simon and Garfunkel to Skee-Lo. (Bonus points to Box Car Racer's "I Feel So", which has about umpteen consecutive "I wish I was" lines in a row at some point.)
As long as I'm getting things off my chest: Look, Good Charlotte: the word you're looking for is "clique". Yes, you're allowed to pronounce it as "click" if you must. No, that doesn't make it spelled "click", not in the slightest. If there were any sort of remotely roundabout way I could justify to myself your choice of "click" as some sort of weirdly poetic choice rooted in wordsmithing artistry, I totally would. But "nope, you're all just goddamned morons" appears to be the only real option I have at hand. Argh!
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ready2rock
Joined: 25 Aug 2007
Posts: 1738
Location: somewhere in this vast universe
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| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:52 am Post subject: |
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| RichardGHP wrote: | Now, normally spelling as opposed to grammar is my forte, but this is where I step in and say that the correct way to write this lyric depends on the context of the song. "I am better than he" sounds more old-fashioned, something that might come out of Shakespeare, Dickens, or something as early as the Bible. As the centuries have passed, the amount of words in the lexicon and grammatical rules have increased. Hence, the proper way to write the lyric today would in fact be "I'm better than he is".
Again, though, this depends entirely on the context of the song. Does he want the next line to rhyme with "he"? Is he going for for an old-fashioned sound? Or a more modern one? |
Ding ding ding!
The lyrics are:
time is going by
so much faster than I
These are the 1st 2 lines of an aabaab rhyme scheme that he uses in the verses of the song.
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Rawrspoon
Joined: 04 Sep 2008
Posts: 1597
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| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:57 am Post subject: |
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I for one don't mind much about proper grammar.
I care about the lyrics making some sort of sense.
It's like popular rap is getting shittier and shittier, the lyrics make about as much sense as huffing a kitten. |
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Yewb 
Joined: 10 Jan 2008
Posts: 3020
Location: Plymouth, UK
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| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:25 am Post subject: |
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WHY DO I FEEEEEL SO NUMB
IS IT SOMETHING TO DO WITH FROM WHERE I COME
Etc.
I mean, that's better grammar (debatably), it actually rhymes better and it's the same number of syllables... but it disrupts the flow of the song MORE than the original lyrics.
Artistic licence is an overused expression, but one that fits rather well here.
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| expertwin wrote: | | ShadoWolf wrote: | | expertwin wrote: | | I just want to, you know, get my name out there. BTW, it updates every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Was just the first two, decided to do Saturdays as well. |
Serious advice now: No-one likes indecision in their work, so find what you like that you're even remotely good at, and stick with it. Don't flit from one thing to another, because that just smacks of a large lack of determination and drive. And people don't like you for that, and won't remember you for it. I mean, I get that you have a plucky spirit and a willingness to try new things, but there's a limit, man. |
I might knock it down to just Thursday and Friday. |
| JOE2210 wrote: | | Leave me alone, I have been drinking and your made up words mean nothing to me. |
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dragonfyre17
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 294
Location: new york city
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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| youhas wrote: | | styxmaniac wrote: | "I" is the correct word for proper grammar. It really means "Time is going by so much faster than I (am going). "Than I" is an adverb clause modifying the adjective "faster." All clauses, whether subordinate or independent, must have both a subject and a verb, so by saying "than me," you are saying "than me am going." These are also known as elliptical clauses.
Oh, and poetic license dictates that none of what is written above this matters. |
styxmaniac pretty succinctly expressed all relevant thoughts on that line that I was going to share. While we're on the topic of grammatical song lyrics:
I wish that more artists actually employed the subjunctive tense on those relatively few occasions when it comes up. Generally speaking, that usually just means replacing out "I wish I was" with "I wish I were". "Were" has the same number of syllables as "was", rarely comes at the end of a sentence to impact rhyme schemes... and is pretty much universally butchered all the same. And has been for decades, from Simon and Garfunkel to Skee-Lo. (Bonus points to Box Car Racer's "I Feel So", which has about umpteen consecutive "I wish I was" lines in a row at some point.)
As long as I'm getting things off my chest: Look, Good Charlotte: the word you're looking for is "clique". Yes, you're allowed to pronounce it as "click" if you must. No, that doesn't make it spelled "click", not in the slightest. If there were any sort of remotely roundabout way I could justify to myself your choice of "click" as some sort of weirdly poetic choice rooted in wordsmithing artistry, I totally would. But "nope, you're all just goddamned morons" appears to be the only real option I have at hand. Argh! |
If it's something that's been "universally butchered" for decades, perhaps it's not being "butchered" at all. Maybe it's just accepted nowadays in English and that represents nothing more than language change, which is natural and happens all the time.
And styxmaniac, are you sure that "than me" is ungrammatical in that context? I find it equally acceptable, perhaps even more so than "I". My understanding is that there has to be tensed inflection within a phrase (btw "clause" is kind of an outdated term in language studies... silly terminology) to assign nominative case to its subject (i.e. "I" vs. "me"). And unless I'm going completely crazy, I think that "than" can assign accusative case (i.e. "me") perfectly fine in that context. But I do understand your argument-- that there has been some sort of deletion within the phrase that has removed the copular verb. But I'm not really convinced. What would be the "deleted" part in a sentence like "I am growing taller than him"?
I know that this is irrelevant because we have decided that poetic license negates all of these arguments (and not just in poetry/songs... I fully encourage people to play with language and bend these so-called "rules" in day-to-day speech). I just jump at the occasion to have a discussion with a fellow language nerd.
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| psychomonkey62 wrote: | | DontFret wrote: | | jordan fc before strutter lolwut? |
Dude, Strutter is friggin' impossible. |
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JLynn
Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 302
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| Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:15 am Post subject: |
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He's just a sk8er boi
She said c u later boi
..
Just kidding.
Candlebox - You: "This blood on my hands are for you"
Love the song, but that line makes me cringe every time.
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donovan3995
Joined: 09 Jun 2008
Posts: 58
Location: Riverside County, California
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| Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 12:10 am Post subject: |
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| kainiac wrote: | | guitarroker wrote: | | No, "I" only works if you are the topic of the sentence, not the object. Plus, "I" and "me" are the exact same amount of syllables: one. No excuse, and I don't think it "flows better" or anything. |
Ok. So rewrite the lines
Time is going by
so much faster than I
with "me"instead of I and still have it rhyme and make sense with the style of the song.........no excuse my ass. |
Time is running free
so much faster than me
"I mean come on, is it that hard to be poetic as a gamer?"
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donovan3995
Joined: 09 Jun 2008
Posts: 58
Location: Riverside County, California
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donovan3995
Joined: 09 Jun 2008
Posts: 58
Location: Riverside County, California
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| Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 12:13 am Post subject: Re: Bad grammar in music industry |
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| kainiac wrote: | | TheJackpotter wrote: | Either my English sucks, or bad grammar is getting even more popular in music.
I was just hearing Lights and Sounds by Yellowcard and heard: "You earns...". It's not the first time I hear typos like this. I'm gonna list s'more typos:
Master of Puppets: "Where's the dreams..."
???: "You is taking..."
A song by Nickelback, I think: "I is..." "...so much faster than I"
So, SH, what do you think about this? Do they make this mistakes on prupose or not? |
Poetic license = they can say whatever the hell they want. They probably make them on purpose to fit lyrics and flow better |
It is actually illegal to speak out against the government in a time of war and spread lies. And also to convince audiences to kill themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong
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