Do people with English as their primary language need to look at the lyrics for the songs?

Question

Or even the subtitles when watching a movie or anything else?

MuddyMole · Accepted Answer

There are certainly many, many famous examples of commonly misheard song lyrics (and whole comedy routines based on them), so sometimes, yes. That was one of the great things about CDs back in the day - they included that little booklet with all the song lyrics.
With movies and tv, not so much, although there has been a trend in the last decade or so, to make the background music much, much louder, relative to the dialogue, and a lot of people really struggle with that, to the point where they need subtitles.

altaboy · Accepted Answer

Sometimes I do when the words are not clear. "Scuze me, while I kiss this guy!"

Sigh, you're too young to get the reference. The line "excuse me while I kiss the sky," in the song Purple Haze, by Jimi Hendrix was often mis-heard as, "Scuze me, while I kiss this guy!"

Singers often fail to enunciate properly.

menina · Accepted Answer

I'm not a native English speaker but I guess they need to look for the lyrics and sometimes they might need subtitles. Like many languages English has its varieties, so if you're from a certain country or region you might not understand everything that a speaker from other country/region says.

NathanDavis · Answer

yes, you can always mishear your own language...

and then there's many accents you didn't grow up with

there's also many words or phrases you're just not familiar with it

and then you have singers that or performers that are not actually "saying" a word as it is actually is spoke but song, etcétera...

other times is just really terrible audio, lol

OlderAndWiser · Answer

Song lyrics. . quite often. Subtitles for movies. . . rarely, unless it is a UK movie with a strong accent, such as some of the Scottish actors.

Anonymous · Answer

Songs are not always clear so, yes, everyone needs to look up what they're saying at times.
Subtitles on movies are really helpful when you've got a kid asleep and the sound is low, or they're awake and noisy. I never needed them before children though.

Andres77 · Answer

Sometimes you just can’t understand some words

Jamie05rhs · Answer

Yes. Because modern musical "artists" don't know how to fucking talk.

fonduegirl · Answer

Probably not

Anonymous · Answer

Sometimes, yeah

Do people with English as their primary language need to look at the lyrics for the songs?

Most Helpful Opinions

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

Do you find it hard to understand songs’ lyrics?

Do people with English as their primary language need to look at the lyrics for the songs?

Most Helpful Opinions

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

Do you find it hard to understand songs’ lyrics?

We're glad to see you liked this post.