When learning English as a second language it is common for students to practice reading, watching TV, and listening to music in English to help improve their skills.

Our teachers at The Harvest English Institute always give students suggestions about practicing language skills outside the classroom. Listening to popular English songs is just one of the many simple tips we recommend. However, it’s not much good if the songs you are singing contain spelling and grammar mistakes!

You would be surprised how many popular songs in English contain obvious mistakes. To help you identify these, we have highlighted our top five below:

Fergalicious – Fergie

Let’s start off with some simple spelling. The word ‘tasty’ is featured quite a bit in Fergie’s “Fergalicious”. However, it’s not great when it’s being spelled incorrectly: “T to the A to the S-T-E -Y / Girl, you’re tasty.” To clarify, there is no ‘e’ in ‘tasty’.

Hound Dog – Elvis Presley

Don’t worry, even the greats get it wrong sometimes. In Elvis Presley’s famous song “Hound Dog”, the lyric “When they said you was high class”, ‘was’ should be ‘were’.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Rolling Stones & Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers

We have grouped these two well-known songs by the Rolling Stones and Bill Withers together because they both fall victim to the same mistake… double negatives! Causing great confusion in the English language, the Rolling Stones “I can’t get no satisfaction“, actually means they are getting satisfaction, and Bill Withers “Ain’t no sunshine” means there is sunshine when she’s gone…? It makes our heads spin just thinking about it.

Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

Can you tell what’s wrong with this lyric? “I want your love and I want your revenge. You and me could write a bad romance”. That’s right! It should read: “You and I could write a bad romance”.

I’ll Never Break Your Heart – Backstreet Boys

Finally, for all of you Backstreet Boys superfans out there- we hate to disappoint you but in their song “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” the inclusion of the word ‘more’ in the lyric “You will get to know me a little more better” is completely unnecessary!

Once you start looking for spelling and grammar mistakes in your favorite popular English songs, you will notice them everywhere! Trust us, there are plenty!

We hope you found this helpful! Don’t forget to share the mistakes you have found in the comments below.