MONDEGREEN SONG

This is a song-based activity full of mondegreens, something every speaker of any language has experienced at least once in their life. Have you? For language learners (and enthusiasts), deliberate practice in spotting mondegreens can be a great way to:
a) practise listening comprehension skills; and
b) become aware that sometimes what we hear and think we understand is actually not what was said. Though at times, it might make more sense that way.

What are mondegreens?

The term was coined by a writer who misheard ‘laid him on the green’ as ‘Lady Mondegreen’ in a Scottish ballad. Such mishearings can happen to both native and non-native speakers. In many cases, they result from a combination of speed, pronunciation, rhythm, and pitch in the words and phrases involved. Sometimes, it’s also our cultural code, experience or expectations that make a certain word or phrase more likely to be ‘heard’.

I’ve listened to the ballad too, and every single time (ignore the lyrics), I hear Lady Mondegreen. And it makes more sense: if there’s a lord (the Earl of Moray), it’s much easier, at least for an avid Jane Austen reader, to picture a love story with Lady Mondegreen (living long and happily ever after) than to imagine the Earl left all alone, with no lady in sight. Skip the tragedy.

Making a G-chord song

Technically, you can turn any song already out there into a spot-the-mondegreen activity, but, as we already discussed in the Many Me’s Song post, it’s quite challenging to find a song that ticks all the boxes: your current topic, target vocabulary, learner age, and learning outcomes. So I made my own Mondegreen Song, building around the topic of daily routines. Every line in the lyrics contains a mondegreen, with varying levels of challenge and logical fit. I used Suno (you can hum the tune there now, btw) to turn the lyrics into my own synthetic G-chord song, heavily inspired by the topic itself (routine is routine) and the weather in our place – it rained today, it rained yesterday, and there’s more rain tomorrow.

(Watch it on YouTube)

How to Use in the Classroom

Step 1.

Explain what a mondegreen is and tell the story of how the term was coined. Then, ask students to quickly skim through the misheard lyrics.

Step 2.

Have students listen to the song and replace the misheard parts in the lyrics with the correct words.

Step 3.

Ask students to compare their versions of the lyrics. Then have them describe the day and look for connections to their own daily routines.

Follow-up

Watch the video again, but this time focus on the view from the train window and the drinks that mark different moments of the day. Imagine your day as a sequence of drinks, what would it look (or taste) like?

What drink best represents your morning mood or energy?
What drink would match your afternoon?
And what kind of drink feels right for your evening?

Note: These drinks show how your day feels, not what you really drink.

Model structure:

My morning is like a strong coffee. It is busy and focused, and I am alert and productive.

In the afternoon, my day feels like sparkling water with lemon. I’m still alert, but the edge is gone, and I feel more relaxed.

In the evening, my day is similar to herbal tea. I slow down, reflect on the day, and prepare to rest.

* Discussion Questions: You can also use the Anti-Quiz Maker to come up with some good ‘anti-quiz’ questions for discussion – paste in the correct lyrics and choose your students’ age and proficiency level.

Suggested questions:

If your morning started like the song what would you first see, hear, or feel outside your window?
Imagine you’re making coffee, just like the narrator. If your coffee could magically give you one superpower for the day, what would it be? How would you use it on ‘just another day’?
The narrator mentions ‘a heavy bag on their back’. What would your heavy bag contain if it represented not just your belongings but your thoughts and emotions for the day? Would you carry it, or leave it somewhere? Why?
Picture yourself writing an email to your past self instead of an old boss. What’s one piece of advice or encouragement you’d send to your younger self about facing ‘just another day’?
The narrator searches for peace. What does peace look, smell, or sound like to you? Would you find it in a forest, at a noisy café, in the stars, or somewhere completely unexpected? Describe your ‘peace’.
The ‘rhythm of the street’ is mentioned in the song. If the street where you live could play music, what genre would it be (e.g., jazz, rock, techno)?
The chorus talks about ‘watching time go by’. If time were a person sitting next to you on a train, what would they look like (age, clothes, personality)?
Create an alternative ending for the song: What would you add to the final verse? Keep the rhythm and feel of the song, but make it personal and unique to your outlook on life.

My favourite mondegreen is the one I accidentally created myself. In a British Council podcast, where we were discussing the impact of AI on teaching, I referred to the well-known (well, known once) Bananarama’s It Ain’t What You Do song. As some listeners later told me, if the host hadn’t stepped in, they’d have understood it as the One Banana Song. Which is all very good. Even bananas can top the music charts these days.