ESLSongs
A collection of song lyrics to teach English vocabulary and grammar in the ESL classroom
Conditionals
Alanis Morissette – Ironic
To practise: 1st conditional, Conditionals, Murphy's Law
Band/singer: Alanis Morissette
Discover “Murphy’s Law” with your ESL students with this song, Ironic, by Alanis Morissette. The lyrics of this song contain eleven different examples of situations which we could define as “Murphy’s Law”. There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes below, which includes practising the first conditional with your…
Bruno Mars – Count on me
To practise: 1st conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: Bruno Mars
Practice the first conditional in your ESL class with this song, Count on me by Bruno Mars. There are 7 different examples of the 1st conditional in these song lyrics, with both if and when as the connectors. There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes below, but for…
To practise: 2nd conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: Pete Seeger
Practice the second conditional in your ESL class with this song, If I Had a Hammer by Pete Seeger. To see suggestions on how to use this song in class, click here. Lyrics If I had a hammer I’d hammer in the morning I’d hammer in the evening All over this land I’d hammer out…
Barenaked Ladies – If I had a million dollars
To practise: 2nd conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: Barenaked Ladies
Practice the second conditional in your ESL class with this song, If I had a million dollars by Bare Naked Ladies. There are 14 examples of the second conditional in these song lyrics. To see suggestions on how to use this song in class, click here. Lyrics If I had a million dollars (if I had…
The Beautiful South – I’ll sail this ship alone
To practise: 1st conditional, 2nd conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: The Beautiful South
Practice the first and second conditional in your ESL class with this song, I’ll Sail This Ship Alone by The Beautiful South. There are 7 examples of the first conditional and four examples of the second conditional in these song lyrics. There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes…
Frank Sinatra – If you go away
To practise: 1st conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: Frank Sinatra
Practice the first conditional in your ESL class with this song, If You Go Away by Frank Sinatra. There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes below, but for more ideas, click here. Lyrics If you go awayOn this summer dayThen you might as wellTake the sun away All…
Adele – If it hadn’t been for love
To practise: 3rd conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: Adele, The Steeldrivers
Practice the third conditional in your ESL class with this song, If it hadn’t been for love by The Steeldrivers and covered by Adele. This song’s lyrics contain 9 different examples of the 3rd conditional. There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes below, but for more ideas, click here. Lyrics…
Beyoncé – If I were a boy
To practise: 2nd conditional, Conditionals, Equality, Gender Equality
Band/singer: Beyoncé
Practice the second conditional in your ESL class with this song, If I Were a Boy by Beyoncé, a song about gender equality. The lyrics of this song contain multiple 2nd conditional phrases describing the many ways Beyonce’s life would be different if she were a boy. There is a suggestion on how to use…
The Guess Who – She might have been a nice girl
To practise: 3rd conditional, Conditionals
Band/singer: The Guess Who
Practice the third conditional with “might have” (instead of “would have”) in your ESL class with this song, She might have been a nice girl by The Guess Who. The third conditionals with “might have” which appear in these song lyrics are: “might have been/played/had/broke(n)”. To see suggestions on how to use this song in…
Grammar & Topics
- Beginners' Lyrics (11)
- Basic level (8)
- REALLY basic level (3)
- Conditionals (9)
- 1st conditional (4)
- 2nd conditional (4)
- 3rd conditional (2)
- Defining relative clauses (2)
- Question words (8)
- All the question words (1)
- How (2)
- How many (2)
- What (2)
- Whose (1)
- Question tags (1)
- Subject questions (1)
- Modal verbs of ability (6)
- Modal verbs of deduction (2)
- Modal verbs of obligation (5)
- Modal verbs of possibility (5)
- Past modals (1)
- Adjectives (8)
- Adjectives of personality (1)
- Comparative & Superlative (2)
- Describing people (3)
- Adverbs of frequency (2)
- Adverbs of manner (2)
- Adverbs of place (1)
- Clothes (1)
- Colours (2)
- Days of the week (1)
- Family (1)
- Food (2)
- Jobs (2)
- Months (1)
- Nature (4)
- Another, other(s), the other(s) (1)
- Body movements & actions (1)
- Phrasal verbs (2)
- The verb "TO GET" (1)
- Multiple Tenses (for revision) (8)
- Past Tenses (22)
- All narrative tenses (1)
- Past continuous (2)
- Past perfect (2)
- Past simple (9)
- Present perfect continuous (4)
- Present perfect simple (6)
- Present continuous (2)
- Present simple (10)
- Future continuous (1)
- Future perfect (1)
- Going to (4)
- Will (1)
- Christmas holidays (3)
- New year's resolutions (1)
- Gender Equality (2)
- LGBT issues (1)
- Racism (1)
- Social Equality (1)
