English Classes Online through 5 songs 

Ahh, music. Isn’t it wonderful? We can associate many songs to particular times in our lives, such as songs that remind us of a special holiday or time at school, songs we listened to when we fell in love or when we first had a broken heart. The fact that we can still remember songs and their lyrics from childhood shows you how useful they can be for learning a language, and especially for remembering new words! Songs are also fun to listen to, so they help with your motivation. So if you listen to these five fun and famous English songs on Youtube, it will be like taking English classes online!  

 learn basic English vocabulary with songs just as you would with English classes online

1. “Our House” by Madness

This famous band from London have made many catchy songs, and ‘Our House’ is no exception – you will soon be bopping your head to the beat. It’s our first of 5 songs that are basically English classes online. It’s a song about remembering the good old days with family, and it describes each member of the family and what they used to do. Most of the song is quite slow, and should be clear enough to understand most of the words.

This is a great song for learning basic vocabulary about daily routines:

Father gets up late for work

Mother has to iron his shirt

Then she sends the kids to school

Sees them off with a small kiss

It’s also a fantastic way to practice your pronunciation through rhyming words like these:

Our house it has a crowd.

There’s always something happening.

And it’s usually quite loud.

Our mum she’s so house-proud.

Nothing ever slows her down and a mess is not allowed.

 

this song is an online English grammar class

2. “Water Under the Bridge” by Adele

Even the title of this song, ‘Water Under the Bridge’ is an online English lesson on its own!

‘Water under the bridge’ is an English idiom and it refers to problems in the past which we no longer worry about because we can’t change them. Sounds like an Adele song, right? Adele has one of the most famous voices of modern times, and her slow love ballads about heartbreak are a great way to sing your way to better English.

If you watch the music video of this song with its lyrics at the same time, it is basically a small English grammar lesson and one of the best free English classes online you’ll find that’s so enjoyable at the same time. Especially if you’re an Adele fan. It’s a great way to practice the first conditional with ‘if’ – by singing along, you will be practicing the form without thinking about it at all:

If you’re not the one for me, then how come I can bring you to your knees?

If I’m not the one for you, why have we been through what we have been through?

If you’re gonna let me down, let me down gently.

learn English irregular verbs with Coldplay 

3. ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay

Coldplay are one of the biggest rock bands to ever come out of the United Kingdom in recent years, and their first hit single ‘Yellow’ made a big impact on young and moody teenagers everywhere. It’s a great song to listen to on a rainy day, or simply when you want to chill out. Like most of Coldplay’s songs, the beat is slow enough to follow every word and even sing along.

Are you trying to remember the past form of verbs? Well this is the song for you. Sing along and soon these verbs will come to you naturally. Many of the lyrics contain very common irregular verbs, like these:

I came along.

I wrote a song for you.

So then I took my turn.

I swam across.

I drew a line. 

 

learn English online even if you’re lazy 

4. ‘Lazy Song’ by Bruno Mars

Everybody feels a little bit lazy once in a while, and Bruno Mars perfectly sums up the feeling in this song about doing nothing. What’s great is that you will also feel like you are doing nothing while learning English with this song!

Bruno Mars is one of America’s biggest pop singers and is famous for his catchy songs and his honey-sweet voice. You will quickly pick up the simple tune and the natural pronunciation that is used in everyday speaking. You see, Bruno sings this song with a lot of contractions, just like people do when they are speaking. One of the easiest English classes online is to choose a Youtube video with the lyrics and try to copy the way Bruno sings to sound like a native speaker.

For example:

‘Cause today I swear I’m not doing anything    (‘cause instead of because).

I’m gonna kick my feet up and stare at the fan  (gonna instead of going to).

I’ll be loungin’ on the couch just chillin’ in my snuggie   (loungin’ and chillin’ instead of lounging and chilling).

 

 learn common English expressions with songs online

 5. ‘Where is the Love?’ by the Black Eyed Peas

If you want a serious challenge to learn vocabulary about a complex but current topic, this song is a great one to choose.  Even though Where is the Love? was released more than ten years ago, it’s themes are still as relevant today as they were back then. The Black Eyed Peas are a famous American hip hop group including Fergie and Will.i.am. Their rap song sends a powerful message about the state of the world today, and is a great tune for Advanced students who want a real listening challenge. It is very fast, but really worth the effort as it will stay with you for a long time.

You will need an online dictionary to understand the idiomatic expressions and get a deeper sense of the song. Here are some examples:

Can you practice what you preach? (Do what you advise others to do).

Or would you turn the other cheek? (Refrain from retaliating when you have been attacked or insulted).

And of course rap is a great way to listen to lyrics that rhyme, which helps with your pronunciation!

Then you only leave space to discriminate.

And to discriminate only generates hate.

And when you hate then you’re bound to get irate, yeah.

So, remember that learning English through songs can be educational, but most of all, lots of fun!