Solution to Wednesday's Song Exercise

Hi everyone! Today's post will be short, just to give you the solution to Wednesday's song exercise. Remember that you had to find the errors in the song below. I'll include the video with the lyrics again, just for reference, and after that I'll include the solution at the end of the post:

Find 11 Mistakes in These Lyrics:

INCUBUS – LOVE HURTS


Tonight we drinks to youth
and holding fast too truth
don't want to loose what I had as a boy
My heart still has a beat
but love is now a feet
as common as a cold day in LA
Sometimes at nite alone I wonder
Is there a spell that I am under
Keeping me from seeing the real thing


Love hurts, but sometimes is a good hurt
And it feel like I'm alive
Love sings, when it transcends the bad things
have a heart and try me
'Cause without love I won't survive


I'm fettered and abused
Stand naked and accused
should I surfaced this one man submarine
I only want the truth
So tonight we drinked two youth
I'll never lose what I had as a boy
Sometimes at night alone I wonder
Is there a spell that I am under
Keeping me from seen the real thing
(Repeat chorus)

Solution

(changes are underlined and in bold)

INCUBUS – LOVE HURTS

Tonight we drinks to youth

(drinks--> drink)

and holding fast too truth

(too--> to)

don't want to loose what I had as a boy

(loose--> lose)

My heart still has a beat

but love is now a feet

(feet--> feat)

as common as a cold day in LA

Sometimes at nite alone I wonder

(nite--> night)

Is there a spell that I am under

Keeping me from seeing the real thing

Love hurts, but sometimes is a good hurt

(is--> it's)

And it feel like I'm alive

(feel--> feels)

Love sings, when it transcends the bad things

have a heart and try me

'Cause without love I won't survive

I'm fettered and abused

Stand naked and accused

should I surfaced this one man submarine

(surfaced--> surface)

I only want the truth

So tonight we drinked two youth

(drinked-->drink) (two--> to)

I'll never lose what I had as a boy

Sometimes at night alone I wonder

Is there a spell that I am under

Keeping me from seen the real thing

(seen--> seeing)

(Repeat chorus)

So, were you able to find all the errors and understand why they were errors? If you have any questions or comments, I'd be happy to hear from you!

Have a great weekend, and see you again on Monday! 

Back From Vacation, But Still Lazy

Hello! I got back from my trip on Monday night, but I've been enjoying my short break from blogging as I get everything on order here here in Costa Rica. However, I don't want to leave you completely without new Sitzman ABC posts, since I know I have so many passionate fans throughout the world! Haha! So, today and Friday I'll just put up short posts, and next week we'll get back into the habit of three posts per week.

For today, I thought I'd share a fast activity that I did with my class this evening. The song is by Incubus, and it's called "Love Hurts." 

For the activity, you need to read the lyrics below and try to find 11 errors. The errors can be related to spelling, vocabulary, or grammar. You don't actually have to listen to the song to find the errors, but it makes it all more interesting if you do!

Find 11 Mistakes in These Lyrics:

INCUBUS – LOVE HURTS


Tonight we drinks to youth
and holding fast too truth
don't want to loose what I had as a boy
My heart still has a beat
but love is now a feet
as common as a cold day in LA
Sometimes at nite alone I wonder
Is there a spell that I am under
Keeping me from seeing the real thing


Love hurts, but sometimes is a good hurt
And it feel like I'm alive
Love sings, when it transcends the bad things
have a heart and try me
'Cause without love I won't survive


I'm fettered and abused
Stand naked and accused
should I surfaced this one man submarine
I only want the truth
So tonight we drinked two youth
I'll never lose what I had as a boy
Sometimes at night alone I wonder
Is there a spell that I am under
Keeping me from seen the real thing
(Repeat chorus)

So, could you find all the errors? Hopefully so but if you couldn't, don't worry--some of them are pretty hard to find!

Check back on Friday for the solution to this activity.

Thanks for reading, and have a great night!

A Friday Video

Hello! It's very late on Thursday night, but technically it's Friday (very early Friday morning) so I'm going to post this video now since I'll be traveling later "today."

The video is for a song called "Tongue Tied" by Grouplove. The lyrics aren't very amazing, honestly, and the video is strange, but the song's title has "tongue" in it and for "Taste" week, that's good enough for me! Plus it has a good beat:

If you didn't know, "tongue tied" generally refers to a person who is not able to speak because he or she is nervous or has something else preventing him or her from speaking. Another common phrase for that is "the cat's got your tongue." Yeah, I know, it's weird, but that's English. And that's how Fun Friday works.

So, thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Fun Friday: Two "Smell" Videos

Hi Everyone! It's Fun Friday, but only for 20 minutes more (I'm writing this at 11:40 pm). I thought this would be a good occasion to post two of my favorite videos for songs about smell. The first you've probably heard if you listened to any popular music in the last 20 years. It's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (and if you can understand the lyrics without looking at this site, then your English is better than mine!):

In any case, the video was very popular when I was in junior high school, but I still like the song even now. And since you've seen that video, now you can watch the Weird Al Yankovic parody of the song called "Smells Like Nirvana." Here are the lyrics, which basically joke about how hard it is to understand Nirvana's lyrics! Enjoy:

So, thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Sight: "I Can See Clearly Now"

For today's Fun Friday post I was looking for a song related to sight or vision and I found this classic song by Johnny Nash. It's been redone by a few different people, but this version is probably the best. I'll include the video, as well as the lyrics. I hope you like it, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Lyrics:

I Can See Clearly Now, by Johnny Nash

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I’ve been prayin' for
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Look all around, there’s nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again on Monday for the next sense in our series: hearing!

Fun Friday: "Big Me"

Since we were talking about "big" words on Monday and Wednesday of this week, I thought I'd put up a video of a "big" song today for Fun Friday.

The song is called "Big Me," by the Foo Fighters. The lyrics aren't very complex, but I really like the video. The video is a parody that makes fun of a series of 1990s commercials for Mentos mints. You can see some examples of the original commercials here (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but be careful! If you watch them more than one time, you may actually become stupider!

Anyhow, this Foo Fighters video captures the essence of the commercials. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

P.S. - Thanks to my brother Paul for the song suggestion!

A "Berlin" Song

The 1980s band Berlin. Just look at them!

As I mentioned a while ago, I live in Costa Rica in a little town called Berlín. The town may be named after the German capital, but it's completely different, believe me.

Anyhow, "Berlin" is also the name of a pop band from the early 1980s, so I thought I'd share one of their videos with you. It's from the song "No More Words." I'll let you decide what you think of it, but for me it's pretty strange. It takes place in the Great Depression, and the band members are apparently part of a gang that needs to rob and steal to survive.

Here are the lyrics to the song. As you noticed, there is also an "introduction" to the story at the beginning of the video. Can you think of synonyms or definitions in English for the following words?

misery

poverty

homeless 

ragged

hobo

I'd also like to know what you think of the video, so if you'd like, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Verb Exercise Answers

Hello! Today I want to go over the answers from the Bryan Adams song on Monday (and last Friday, too!). I'll divide the verbs into two parts, regular and irregular. I'll also include:

1-the infinitive ("basic") form of the verb in simple present 

2-the simple past form of the verb 

3-the past participle

Remember that for regular verbs, 2 and 3 are the same (that's why they're called regular). For now, don't worry too much about the past participles. The song uses almost exclusively simple past verbs, and we'll focus on the participles and how to use them another day. 

So, here are the verbs from the song (in the order they appear in the song):

Regular Verbs:

play - played - played

try - tried - tried

look - looked - looked

seem - seemed - seemed

last - lasted - lasted

want - wanted - wanted

complain - complained - complained

wait - waited - waited

kill - killed - killed

need - needed - needed

guess - guessed - guessed

change - changed - changed

wonder - wondered - wondered

Irregular Verbs:

get - got - gotten/got*

buy - bought - bought

bleed - bled - bled

(to be) - was/were - been

have - had - had

quit - quit - quit

know - knew - known

do - did - done

spend - spent - spent

meet - met - met

stand - stood - stood

tell - told - told

hold - held - held

unwind - unwound - unwound

come - came - come

go - went - gone

think - thought - thought

Well, that's it for today! On Friday I'd like to continue talking about verbs, but I may do something different. Or I suppose I can make it a surprise, and you'll have to check back on Sitzman ABC on Friday to see!

Thanks for reading, and have a great night!

*As a past participle for the verb get, "gotten" is more common in American English, and "got" is more common in British English.

Song and Exercise: "Summer of '69"

I was going to put up a video related to our "downtown" topic from Monday and Wednesday, but the only songs I could think of were Prince's "Uptown" and Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl." I like both songs (although Prince's is much better), but Prince's song doesn't seem to have a video, and the video for "Uptown Girl" is objectively one of the stupidest music videos ever. So I was stuck. What to do?

After much debate, I finally decided I'd put up Bryan Adam's song "Summer of '69." I'm doing this for two reasons:

-Celine Dion is my arch-nemesis, so if I put up a Bryan Adams video, it should prove I don't hate Celine Dion because she's Canadian (I hate her because her music is awful).

-The song is filled with verbs, both in the simple present and simple past tenses. I actually used this song in a class activity earlier last week, so it's also convenient for me!

Here's the video, followed by the lyrics with an activity.

Lyrics Activity:

Instructions: 
Circle (or at least identify) all the verbs you can find in the song. 
How many verbs are there? 
Are the verbs in the simple present or the simple past tense? 
Divide them into two columns.

SUMMER OF '69 - BRYAN ADAMS

I got my first real six-string

Bought it at the five-and-dime

Played it 'til my fingers bled

It was the summer of ‘69

Me and some guys from school

Had a band and we tried real hard

Jimmy quit and Joey got married

Should have known we'd never get far

Oh when I look back now

That summer seemed to last forever

And if I had the choice

Yeah - I'd always want to be there

Those were the best days of my life

Ain't no use in complainin'

When you’ve got a job to do

Spent my evenings down at the drive-in

And that's when I met you yeah

Standin' on your Mama's porch

You told me that you'd wait forever

Oh and when you held my hand

I knew that it was now or never

Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of ‘69

Man we were killin' time

We were young and restless

We needed to unwind

I guess nothin' can last forever - forever 

And now the times are changin'

Look at everything that's come and gone

Sometimes when I play that old six-string

I think about you, wonder what went wrong

(repeat chorus)

So, when you've identified the verbs, you're done --you can go home and enjoy the weekend! Next week we'll look at this song and its verbs again, and we'll do a few activities with them. Until then, have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Song and Exercise: "Downtown"

Bikers in downtown Fort Collins, the city I come from. Over 140,000 people live in Fort Collins, so it's probably big enough to have an area referred to as "downtown." The downtown area in Fort Collins is normally called "Old Town" since it's the historical center of the city. (Image Credit) (More information about Fort Collins)

Hello, and welcome to Word Wednesday! Today we're going to listen to a song.

But wait, that almost sounds... fun? Well, not really fun, but not boring. Right?

Hopefully! Since we were talking about how to use words like downtown on Monday, I thought I'd put up a song called "Downtown." Petula Clark sang the song in 1965, so it's not very new. It's also not very "cool," but the lyrics are clear and I still like it. So I hope you do, too!

Below is the video, and after the video I'll include an activity that you can complete with the lyrics (you don't actually need to watch the video; it's got very little action, trust me).

Lyrics Activity:

Instructions: Fill in the missing words in the blank spaces. After the lyrics, you'll find hints for each missing word.

DOWNTOWN – PETULA CLARK

When you're (1)_______ and life is making you (2)_______
You can always go - downtown
When you've got (3)_______, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know - downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the (4)_______ where the neon signs are pretty
How can you (5)_______?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - no finer place, for sure
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

Don't (6)_______ and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows - downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never (7)_______- downtown
Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You'll be (8)_______ with him too before the night is over
Happy again

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your (9)_______, forget all your (10)_______
So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
Downtown - waiting for you tonight
Downtown - you're gonna be all right now

[Instrumental break]

And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone who is just like you and needs a (11)_______ hand to
Guide them along

So maybe I'll see you there
(repeat chorus)

HINTS FOR MISSING VOCABULARY WORDS:

1. This is a word that means to be isolated physically.

2. This is a word that means to feel isolated emotionally.

3. This word describes things that cause you stress.

4. In British English, this thing is usually called a pavement.

5. This word can be the opposite of "conquer."

6. This is a (2 word) phrasal verb that means "to stay in one place."

7. A synonym for this word is "shut."

8. This is an activity that you can do in a nightclub.

9. This word rhymes with bubbles.

10. This word rhymes with stairs.

11. This word means "soft and careful."

So, I hope you were able to complete the lyrics! I'll include the answers to this activity on Friday, so if you missed any, be sure to check back then. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


[Update, May 4, 2012]
Here are the missing words for this activity:
1. alone
2. lonely
3. worries
4. sidewalk
5. lose
6. hang around
7. close
8. dancing
9. troubles
10. cares
11. gentle


If you have any questions or comments about this activity, please leave a comment below. Thanks!

English Conditionals: 3rd Conditional

It's hard to find pictures to illustrate grammatical concepts, so here's a nice flower.

Hello, and welcome to "Fun Friday" on Sitzman ABC! Today we'll talk about the Third Conditional in English.

"Wait!" you're possibly thinking, "That doesn't sound like fun!" Good point. I know that grammar can be difficult and complicated, but it's also very important to learn how to use grammar correctly, especially if you want to be an advanced English speaker. So, I'll try to make this post interesting, at least, but you'll have to forgive me if you don't think it's fun.

You might remember that late last year we talked about the 1st and 2nd conditionals in English, and I had meant to write a post about the 3rd conditional immediately after those. However, I had trouble finding a song I liked that used the 3rd conditional. Some English sites mention that Taylor Swift's song "Should've Said No" is good, and it does have some examples of 3rd conditional, but it's not a good song. I just don't like it, so sorry (you can still check it out here if you want). A few songs by artists like Meat Loaf and Rancid use a little bit of third conditional, but Meat Loaf's song only uses it once, and Rancid's song is difficult to understand and a bit too vulgar for a "family" language site like Sitzman ABC.

But then I finally noticed a Journey song that uses the 3rd conditional! You can listen to the song here and read the lyrics below, or you can go to the video's YouTube page to see the lyrics.

So, where is the 3rd conditional in this song? We'll identify that in a moment, but first let's do a quick review about when we use the different conditionals:

1st Conditional: real, probable situations

Example: "If I still feel hungry after dinner, I'll order a piece of pie for dessert." 

(In this case, there's a definite possibility that I will feel hungry, so I can use the first conditional.)

2nd Conditional: unreal, improbable situations

Example: "If I were a cat, I would sleep all day."

(This is obviously an unreal situation: I'm not a cat, and I'm not going to be a cat unless a science experiment goes terribly wrong.)

Now, for the 3rd Conditional:

3rd Conditional: unreal situations in the past

Example: "If I hadn't missed the bus, I could have arrived to class on time."

(This is how we can speculate about past events that could have happened differently. In this sentence, I missed the bus, but I'm imagining a different past condition and result.) 

The 3rd conditional is structured very similarly to the 2nd conditional, except that the 2nd conditional talks about the present and the future, but the 3rd talks about a fictional past. It also has two parts:

1. The "if" part (also called the "if phrase," "if clause," or "condition")

2. The "fantasy" part (also called the "would clause" or "result")

Let's look at another example:

If I hadn't come to Costa Rica, I might never have learned Spanish.

I can say this sentence in the 3rd conditional because I'm speculating about the past. I did come to Costa Rica, obviously, but I'm just imagining what my life might be like if I hadn't come to Costa Rica. We can usually invert the two parts, like in the other conditional tenses:

I might never have learned Spanish if I hadn't come to Costa Rica.

Both sentences mean the same thing, and the condition and result are the same in both.

Forming sentences in 3rd Conditional:  

The structure of a 3rd conditional sentence is very similar to a 2nd conditional sentence, with one important difference:

In the third conditional, the condition is written in a past perfect tense ("had / hadn't" + past participle), and the result is written using would / could / might / should + "have" + past participle. 

Here are some more examples:

If Shelly had known Mike was a vegetarian, she wouldn't have cooked steaks.

If Jim hadn't traveled to India, he wouldn't have met his wife in Bangalore.

If Ryan had thought this would be so complicated to explain, he wouldn't have written this post.

No one would have believed it if Costa Rica had won the 2006 World Cup.

We might not have had transmission problems if we had changed the transmission fluid earlier.

They probably wouldn't have gotten hypothermia while camping if they had brought warmer clothes.

In other words:

If (had/hadn't) + (past participle), (would/could/might) + (have) + (past participle) 

Notice that in many cases, like in the Journey or Taylor Swift songs, we often only say the result, and the condition is often implied or not mentioned.

Can you complete the following phrases?

Roger might have gotten a better grade on his exam if ___________ .

Elaine would have felt happy yesterday if ___________ .

If Timothy had read his email, he ___________ .
If the baby hadn't spilled its juice in the car, the parents ___________ a new car seat.

(You can find many more 3rd conditional exercises here, here, here, and here.)

For more practice, listen to the song again and try to find some phrases that use the third conditional (remember that in this song, it only uses the result, and not the condition). Here are the lyrics (I'll put the third conditional phrases at the end of this post so you can check your answers):

Journey - "It Could Have Been You"

We were so close yet so far away
I'd reach out, you'd be gone
Moments that still take my breath away
There's so much more to life than loving you
You don't need me, no...

I can't wait all my life, on a street of broken dreams
It could have been you my love (where are you now)
Oh I still wonder if you remember the night
It could have been you

Time washes over memories
I can't look back no more
Change has forsaken our promises
There's someone else for you to hold again
So please stop your crying

I can't wait all my life, on a street of broken dreams
It could have been you my love (where are you now)
Oh I still wonder if you remember the night
It could have been you

Remember, remember, girl I remember
I can't wait all my life, on a street of broken dreams
It could have been you my love (where are you now)
Oh I still wonder if you remember the night
It could have been you (where are you now)
Should have been you my love (where are you now)
It could have been you my love (where are you now)
remember...remember...remember

Aah! An 80s pop song about heartbreak, regret, and lost love... the perfect place to use third conditional! Any time you talk about a past action that you wish you had done differently (a regret), then the third conditional can be your grammatical weapon of choice!

So, what phrases did you find in the 3rd conditional? Yep, they're basically "It could have been you" and "It should have been you." So as mentioned before, we often only use one half of the third conditional. 

That's about it for today-- maybe it wasn't "fun," but at least you got to listen to some Journey!

As usual, if you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below or contact me.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

German Corner: "The Dumb Fish Song"

So far, I've mainly stuck to talking about English on this blog, but I've been meaning to add more content about other languages, as well. I actually studied German and struggled for nearly a decade to learn it, so often it's actually more interesting for me to talk or think about the German language than it is for me to write about English.

On the rare occasions that people ask about German, they often ask, "Is it hard?" 

Short answer: Yes. 

Long answer: Yes, it is.

German pronunciation is easier than English, since it's phonetic and English isn't, but that's about it. The main killer of students who are trying to learn German is grammar. I remembered I'd heard the following song about 10 years ago, and believe it or not, it's actually a song specifically written to illustrate German adjective endings. You can feel free to watch the video, although only the song is original; the video was made by some junior-high schoolers as an extra-credit project, apparently, and the video quality seems to verify that fact:

Now, if you don't understand German, then it'll likely seem like a bunch of gibberish. If you do speak German, it'll probably still sound like a bunch of gibberish, because it basically is. I guess that's what you get when you write a song based on grammar. For example, the first line* is:

"Eins, zwei, drei / der gute Mann / ein guter Mann / der gute Mann / ein guter Mann / schlag den guten Mann nicht / schlag einen guten Mann nicht / schlag den guten Mann nicht... gib dem guten Mann einen Fisch / gib einem guten Mann einen Fisch"

That means:

"One, two, three / the good man / a good man / the good man / a good man / don't hit the good man / don't hit a good man / don't hit the good man... give the good man a fish / give a good man a fish"

Look at the English, and compare it to the German version. If you notice, there's a lot going on here. In the German, the definite article the appears to be either der, den, or dem, and the indefinite article a comes out as ein, einen, or einem. And it's true! The words "the" and "a" really can have that many variations (or a few more, if you count plurals and genitive/possessive words). And what about "good"? That comes out as gute, guter, and guten. The reason for these linguistic shenanigans? In German, articles and adjectives change depending on whether the noun they're referring to is the subject, object, or direct object of a sentence.

And the worst part of it is this: "Mann" (meaning "man," pretty obviously) is a masculine noun... and German has three genders: masculine, "neuter," and feminine. Plus, you also have to change the articles, the adjectives, and the nouns themselves when you make them plural. And in fact, that's what progressively happens in the following three verses of the song.

English does have quite a few similarities to German due to the two languages' partially-shared history and development, but luckily for today's English learners --and much to the frustration of today's German learners-- English didn't retain a lot of this grammatical complication, while German did.

So, whenever you're having difficulties learning a language, it's sometimes nice to realize that it could always be worse. And if you're struggling with German, remember this: at least it's not Finnish!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

*This Turkish site has a kind of half-baked version of the lyrics (For example, it doesn't capitalize nouns, as is necessary in German), but I only direct you there for quick reference. For a better alternative, I suggest checking out Brad Yoder's website. I just realized two days ago that he wrote the song, and in a strange twist of fate, I actually met him in Pittsburgh in 2001. He's a good guy and deserves your patronage. Plus, he looks quite a bit like me, and he might even be my long-lost, evil-twin brother (or vice versa)!