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There's many things I wish I didn't do.

It is a quote from a song that I used while I had a conversation with my English teacher. She said that it is incorrect and I should have used hadn't done instead.

I mentioned that it is actually a quote from a famous song, but she said that it doesn't change that fact that it is grammatically incorrect. She said it is a case of poetic license.

Is she right? Should I just stop learning English from songs? :)

kupsef
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    Songs are notoriously sketchy on grammatical correctness. Rhymes and rhythm takes precedence - sense, less so. I think your teacher is right! – marcellothearcane Jul 01 '17 at 21:10
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    (1) 'There's many things ...' is an acceptable replacement for the more logical 'There are many things ...' in most contexts nowadays; this has been covered here before. (2) 'There's many things I wish I didn't do.' is acceptable, but means 'There are many things that I do but wish I could stop doing.' in standard English. (3) What @ marcellothearcane says is right. In this world in which we live in, don't assume that songs contain solely standard English . – Edwin Ashworth Jul 01 '17 at 21:41
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    didn't do is perfectly acceptable and grammatical. It means something different than hadn't done, and @Edwin gives that meaning in his comment. – Arm the good guys in America Jul 01 '17 at 22:35
  • @Laurel Certainly; chasly's answer, which OP there endorses, proves this and answers the question. Well spotted. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 01 '17 at 23:29

1 Answers1

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Yes, your teacher is right. It should be "hadn't done."

Song lyrics are not the best medium to learn the English language as they are prone to commit grammatical errors, sometimes to match the literacy level and language ability of the character/protagonist. For example, if the theme character of the song or movie is not shown as highly educated, the script will correspond to his/her literacy level. Also, song lyrics contain slang/informal expressions not followed and approved by professional class of English language users. Therefore, it's not a good idea to rely on songs/music to hone one's English skills.

And guess what? There is one more error in that song quote!

"There's many things.." should be "There are many things.."

Why? Because the singular verb form "is" does not seem to agree with the plural subject "many things." So the final correct sentence should be:

There are many things I wish I hadn't done.

Bonus: Check this article for songs with bad grammar!

Bad grammar songs

Enjoy!

Rakesh Ghatvisave
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