Hello Everyone!
Well, I’m back from my French adventure but I will leave the details of my French language studies for a future post. For now, how about getting back to grammar in a song? … Good! I thought that’s what you would want!
For this post, I’ve chosen a song that I’ve loved for a long, long time so I hope that you enjoy it. It’s a love song. You may not know all the vocabulary, but after you check the meanings, you will find the story of the song easy to understand. The name of the song – “If we try” tells you a lot. The singer, Don Maclean, is saying that if ‘she’ just tries a little, she might fall in love with him, because he is falling in love with ‘her’.
First, check the meanings of words you don’t know. I have linked some to www.learnersdictionary.com. This is a wonderful online English dictionary that gives definitions, sentence examples, and pronunciation.
Next, check the collocations in this song:
♥ I lose my concentration = I can’t think clearly
♥ creates anticipation = causes a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen
Priscilla Du Preez
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♥ it’ll work out = it will be successful
♥ a state of mind = a temporary way of thinking
♥ signs of affection = showing a feeling of love
∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼
Now, listen to the song a few times (Youtube video below) while reading the lyrics and singing along.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Now, let’s have a look at the lyrics and grammar explanations.
∗ Independent Clauses are underlined.
∗ Dependent Clauses are colour-coded: Adverb Clauses,
Relative Clauses, Noun Clauses.
Song: “If We Try” by Don Maclean
When I see you on the street, I lose my concentration.
Just the thought that we might meet creates anticipation.
Won’t you look my way once before you go
and my eyes will say what you ought to know.
Well I’ve been thinking about you day and night
and I don’t know if it’ll work out right
but somehow I think that it just might if we try.
Faces come and faces go in circular rotation
But something yearns within to grow beyond infatuation.
Won’t you look my way once before you go
and my eyes will say what you ought to know.
Well you’ve got me standing deaf and blind
’cause I see love is just a state of mind
and who knows what it is that we might find if we try.
You’re walking a different direction from most people I’ve met.
You’re giving me signs of affection I don’t usually get.
I don’t want you to pledge your future.
The future’s not yours to give.
Just stand there a little longer and let me watch while you live.
‘Cause when I see you on the street, I lose my concentration.
Just the thought that we might meet creates anticipation.
Won’t you look my way once before you go
and my eyes will say what you ought to know.
Well I’ve been …
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
1. There are examples of Adverb Clauses.
a. When I see you on the street,
b. before you go
c. if we try
d. ’cause I see
e. while you live
2. There are a couple of Reduced Relative Clauses.
f. {that/ whom) I’ve met
g. (that/ which) I don’t usually get
3. There are several Noun Clauses.
h. that we might meet
i. what you ought to know.
j. that it just might
k. what it is that we might find
l. (that) love is just a state of mind
m. if it’ll work out right
∗ There are only three types of Dependent Clauses: Adverb Clauses, Relative Clauses, and Noun Clauses. We call them Dependent Clauses because they ‘depend on’ an Independent Clause to complete a sentence. Look at the Adverb, Relative, and Noun Clauses above. Is it obvious to you that they need help? If you say (or sing) to someone, “When I see you on the street,” … Do they reply or do they wait for you to finish what you’re saying? It’s not a complete sentence is it?
Question: How do we help a Dependent Clause so that it is part of a complete sentence?
Answer: We add an Independent Clause!
Look at the song lyrics, and you’ll see that the Dependent Clauses – Adverb Clauses, Relative Clauses, and Noun Clauses – are in sentences with Independent Clauses:
♦ When I see you on the street, I lose my concentration.
♦ Won’t you look my way once before you go
♦ who knows what it is that we might find if we try
♦ Well you’ve got me standing deaf and blind ’cause I see love is just a state of mind
♦ let me watch while you live
♦ You’re walking a different direction from most people I’ve met.
♦ You’re giving me signs of affection I don’t usually get.
♦ Just the thought that we might meet creates anticipation.
♦ my eyes will say what you ought to know.
Now, you may be wondering why I have underlined three Noun Clauses (they are Dependent Clauses aren’t they?) It should be only the Independent Clauses which are underlined?! Can you work out why I’ve underlined Dependent Clauses?
♦ who knows what it is that we might find 
♦ my eyes will say what you ought to know.
♦ somehow I think that it just might
One important thing to remember about Noun Clauses is that they are nouns, so like ordinary nouns, they can be subjects, objects, or complements in a sentence. In the above three sentences, the noun clauses are the objects. As objects, they are part of the Independent Clauses.
♦ what it is that we might find is the object of who knows
♦ what you ought to know is the object of my eyes will say
♦ that it just might is the object of somehow I think
(These three clauses are examples of Reported Speech. When we report what someone knows, or says, or thinks, we are using Reported Speech and Noun Clauses.)
This song is a good, clear example of how to put Complex Sentences together. It shows you:
♦Dependent Clauses with Independent Clauses – joined by Subordinating Conjunctions: when, before, if, because, that, what, while, who,
♦ Independent Clauses joined by Co-ordinating Conjunctions: and , but.
For more information click on:
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