I used to teach English, and now I translate and edit academic journals. Trust me, there’s nothing wrong with it.
Maybe it’s just me, but in Elton John’s “If I Need You to Turn To,” he
says, “For I need your love, your love protects my fears.”
Shouldn’t it be your love “allays” my fears?
Key point:
Your English credentials have been revoked, and we’ll be tearing off your epaulets and breaking your sword at dawn. Good day, sir.
Don't vs Doesn't Negative Sentences - English Grammar Rules.
“Normally”? Frankly, I don’t know WTF they’re talking about, and they don’t give an example. Maybe you can?
If you don’t be good, I will spank you! is a perfectly normal sentence
Not with the verb to be. “If you aren’t good,” that’s the ticket.
You could also say If you won’t be good.
All three are perfectly acceptable if you’re talking about the future. They just have different nuances.
But “doesn’t” and “don’t” are beyond the pale and make the baby Jesus cry.
English is weird. I don’t make the rules, I just belabor them.
I might have to get a t-shirt made with these words on it.
Sure, but I’m not gonna learn that just to get deeper in a debate that I don’t care enough about to win (or lose, as the case may be).
I’ma keep calling them “yamas” and be dissatisfied with the way the song gets done, if it’s all the same to you.
You must be thinking of negative imperatives, as in the song title “Don’t Be Cruel.”
It should be “Cause if he isn’t, I’ll be there.”
It’s a long shot, but if you were in Patagonia there could even be a Welsh influence there due to the colony of y Wladfa. In Welsh the double L is pronounced like…well, we don’t have an equivalent sound in English, but it’s basically put your tongue up against your front teeth and blow. I could see that resulting in the “zh” pronunciation you heard.
Re: Zombie, its “tanks” that is wrong. It should be “guns and bombs and bombs and guns”.
In Queen’s Radio Ga Ga
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
The repeat of “ga ga” in the third line is repetitive and uninspired. I suggest:
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ca ca
I’m assuming that “ca ca” is understood to be baby-talk for poo
Yeah, that line is downright subtle compared to some of the rest of the lyrics, which make it perfectly clear that Jack and Diane are constantly banging.
Hell, the very next lines:
Diane sitting on Jacky’s lap
Got his hands between her knees
…and the very next lines after that:
Jack he says
"Hey, Diane, let’s run off behind a shady tree
Dribble off those Bobby Brooks
Let me do what I please"
Speaking of song lyrics that need a minor change, “Dribble off those Bobby Brooks”?!? I always thought it was “Jiggle off”. Maybe it’s a lyric mistranscription, but I checked a few lyrics sites and they all say “dribble”.
That sounds completely jarring in my dialect of US English. If you aren’t/won’t be good, I will spank you and If you don’t behave, I will spank you! but not *if you don’t be good, I will spank you! As an imperative, it’s fine, though: Don’t be good!.
I had the same thought, although the Brits did use tanks in Belfast at least once: