7 English lessons from Weird Al's Word Crimes video
Weird Al has released yet another parody video.
The new Word Crimes video takes aim at Robin Thicke's hit single Blurred Lines.
The twist? This time, the 54-year-old ditches the lyrics...to teach English lessons.
Oddly, the parodist didn't poke fun at the original singer or its lyrics. Instead, he stuck plainly to the task of improving viewers' grammar.
Let's check out some of the many Word Crime lessons that Weird Al teaches us...
Lesson 1: Why do you have to WR1T3 it this way? Why can't you WRITE it this way?
For those of you who are fond of mixing numbers into your words, you're about to be schooled by this US artist.
Yes, you heard that right. "Unless you're seven", it's really not cool to mix numbers into your words.
Lesson 2: Less vs. Fewer
I've got LESS water in my cup at the moment but he has FEWER bottles of water than I do.
Do you know how to use "it's less" and "it's fewer"? If you don't, fret not, Weird Al has an example for you.
But you should've known when to use it before you saw this.
Lesson 3: They all sound the same
There's identical sounding words like air and heir, flair and flare, alter and altar, foul and fowl, poll and pole.
Homophones are words that are pronounced (or sound) the same as another but differs in meaning.
Lesson 4: Definition of nomenclature
This is weird. I think the English teacher may have overlooked something in the picture below.
Weird Al says "gonna". But let's pretend that didn't happen.
According to Oxford Dictionary, nomenclature is defined as "the body or system of names used in a particular specialist field."
Lesson 5: It's "to whom" not "to who"
It's never "to who" when you question someone about someone else.
Here's an example.
Person A: John said that to him.
Person B: To whom? (not to who?)
Person A: To the clown, Weird Al, who made the video.
Lesson 6: Do you care or do you not care?
In the most likely of scenarios, saying "I couldn't care less"...
probably doesn't put forth your intended idea because...
So the right way to say it would be "I couldn't care less", just FYI.
Lesson 7: It's vs. Its
"It's" is a contraction for "it is" and is used in sentences like "It's completely ridiculous."
"Its", on the other hand, is possessive pronoun that's used in sentences like "its snout is black" (if, for example, you're talking about a dog).
Source: YouTube
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