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Katie Melua is a popular singer from Georgia.  She had her first big hit
with Nine Million Bicycles.  

This song is a new song that is relaxing and romantic.  The English
grammar that it uses is the 2nd Conditional.  The title of the song is a
conditional sentence.  

If You were a sailboat, I would......

The idea of the song shows how the 2nd conditional is about unreal
situations.  Obviously the man she sings about is not a sailboat.

One interesting grammar point is the way the lyrics use If you were but
also If I was.  If I was is grammatically incorrect.  With the 2nd
Conditional, all subjects take the verb were.  This means:

If I were, If you were, If she were, etc.

However, it is common in spoken English to make this grammar
mistake.  A good song that shows the correct use of the grammar is
Beyonce's If I Were a Boy.  

Listen to the video for If You Were a Sailboat and try the listening
exercise.  Remember that verbs that follow modals are always base
verbs.  
Katie Melua
If You Were a Sailboat
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Music

Listening Exercise

Listen to the song and fill in the spaces with the correct words

If you were a , I would trail you
If you were a piece of wood, I’d nail you to the floor
If you were a sailboat, I would you to the shore
If you were a river, I would swim you
If you were a house, I would in you all my days
If you were a preacher, I’d begin to change my ways

Sometimes I believe in fate
But the chances we always seem to ring more true
You took a chance on loving me
I took a chance on loving you

If I was in , I know you’d spring me
If I were a telephone, you’d ring me all day long
If I was in pain, I know you’d me soothing songs

Sometimes I believe in fate
But the chances we create
Always seem to ring more true
You took a chance on loving me
I took a chance on loving you

If I was hungry, you would me
If I was in darkness, you would lead me to the light
If I was a book, I know you’d me every night

If you were a cowboy, I would trail you
If you were a piece of wood, I’d nail you to the floor
If you were a sailboat, I would sail you to the shore
If you were a sailboat, I would sail you to the shore