Justin Bieber's song lyrics don't have to be grammatically correct. That's not how pop music works. But when an 11-year-old British student heard the song "Boyfriend," he couldn't help but pen an open letter to the pop star concerning a mistake he found. His teacher has shared the letter online, and we now have a new viral story!
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While the young man has remained anonymous, his teacher, Louise Williams, was happy and proud to share the grammar lesson that was offered to Bieber (via UPROXX).
Can you already guess the lyrics that failed the grammar test?
"In the song, you can be heard - on a number of occasions - stating 'If I was your boyfriend:' here you have clearly used the subjunctive mood incorrectly," the English student explained in this open letter. "The correct lyrics should, in fact be, 'If I were your boyfriend.' This is a very common mistake made by the public today; however, if role models (and popular singer-songwriters) such as you cannot use it, why should we make the effort to study and use such grammatical forms correctly?"
Please like/share this letter written by a pupil from my year 5/6 class, in South West Cornwall. They want to see how...
Posted by Louise Williams on Friday, February 26, 2016
Yeah, Justin; why can't you be a grammar role model? Clearly you've grasped the role model position very well over the years, showing us how partying, losing a pet monkey, and allowing friends to crash your expensive cars. Why can't you show us how to properly use grammar in your songs, Justin?
Basically ... who cares? "Boyfriend" has been a hit for years. Sure, it's definitely annoying to hear an error in a song (I'm an Associate Editor for this website, so picking out grammatical errors is part of my job...I even edited the letter a bit!), but that's not really the point of pop music.
So, yes, it's cute that this kid is ripping apart one line in this song, but let's not get on Justin's back about this. And now I'm yelling at an 11-year-old. He probably didn't even write the lyrics, by the way.
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