Four, Five Seconds - Chorus

Hello and welcome to Learning English with Lyrics, the podcast where we breakdown the lyrics of English language songs to help you improve your English! I am your host Jake, and today we are going to dig into the chorus of the song "Four, Five Seconds", by Rihanna, Kanye West, and Paul McCartney. If you haven't heard the first episode in this series, I'd recommend starting there. If this is your first time joining us on this podcast, welcome! I'd suggest starting on the episode titled "Introduction" for an overview of what we do here. Alright, now that that's all out of the way, let's jump right in.

In most songs, the chorus is identical throughout the entire song. It is the one part of the song that is repeated again and again. In this song however, the chorus changes slightly each time it is sung. There are in fact 4 slightly different choruses. I'd recommend listening to the chorus a few times and see if you can spot all of the differences. This is a good exercise to practice your listening comprehension.

Alright, let's jump right in. We'll start with the first version of the chorus, and then we'll talk about one of the variations.

"Now I'm four, five seconds from wildin'"

We have stumbled across the title of our song. But what does it mean? Let's start with the word "wildin'". "Wildin'" is a slang term for acting wild or crazy. If you're "wildin" or "wildin' out" you're doing some that most would consider crazy or extreme. In this case, we already know that our singer is ready to go to jail, so by "wildin'" we can assume she is probably planning on attacking someone! It doesn't always have to mean you're doing something violent though. It can just be generally crazy behavior.

She is saying that she is "four, five seconds" from wildin'. Can you guess what that means, now that you know what wildin' means? It's pretty straight-forward. She is stating the amount of time that will pass before she is "wildin'": around four or five seconds. You are probably thinking to yourself that there is not that much of a difference between four and five seconds, so why is she emphasizing it and being so specific? By over-emphasizing the time, she's basically saying "I'm ABOUT to go crazy", or "If anything else happens that upsets me, I am going to go crazy." You could also say "I am THIS close to going crazy" or "I am THIS close to losing it", while holding your index finger and thumb slightly apart to indicate that you are VERY very close to going crazy. This is the same kind of idea.

So what are some more ways we could say this same phrase? Can you think of any? Give it a try. Here are some of my ideas. "I'm about to go crazy!" "I am THIS close to losing my mind!" "I'm on the verge of going ballistic!"

There's a million and one ways to express this same idea. Find the ones you like best for expressing your frustration and share them with us!

Alright, moving on. The next line says "And we got three more days 'til Friday". This is not correct grammar, but it is something that is said a lot, and if you said this out loud to somebody nobody would mind. The correct way to say this however, is to say "And we *have* three more days 'til Friday".

So what does this mean? Quite simply, it means that in 3 days it's going to be Friday. So then what day is today? It's Tuesday! At least in the song. So why does she say it that way instead of just saying "It's Tuesday!"? To say it the way that she says it, "we have three more days until Friday" indicates to us that three days feels like a long time to our singer. It shows us that the focus is on Friday, not on today. It means, "It's not Friday yet, and I wish it *was* Friday. Unfortunately, there are still three more days until Friday." A more clear way to say the same thing, might be to say "We *still* have 3 more days until Friday."

We can express the opposite sentiment or feeling as well. Sometimes, three days can feel like a long time, but if you have a project that is due, or something coming up that you're dreading or fearful about, or even something that you're very, very happy about and looking forward to, three days can feel like a very short amount of time. In that case, you could say "We *only* have three more days until Friday". The "only" means that it doesn't seem like very much time at all.

The third line says "Just tryna make it back home by Monday mornin'". The word "tryna" here isn't a real word at all. It is slang, but not the kind you can should add into your vocabulary. You need to understand it, but I'd advise against adding this one into your lexicon. So what does it mean? It means "trying to". So to write the phrase without slang, we would say "I'm just trying to make it back home by Monday morning". Our singer is trying to or attempting to get home by Monday morning. We're not sure where she is, but wherever it is, she is not happy about it! She just wants to get back home in the next 6 days.

The final line says "I swear I wish somebody would tell me, oooh that's all I want." The word that is the strangest here, is the word "tell". I will admit, I have no idea what she means by this. It's possible that this is a slang term that I am not aware of, but my research didn't uncover anything. I really am not sure what she is hoping that somebody tells her. But that's okay! Because this is one of our lines that changes, and the other version is a bit more clear. So we'll talk about that.

The second time that she sings the chorus, she says "I swear I wish somebody would *try* me" instead of tell me. Can you guess what this means? We'll start with the word "try". What does it mean to "try" somebody? We all know what it means to "try" something right? It makes to make an attempt at doing something, that is to say, you don't know if you're going to succeed to not, but you're going to start to do something. It can also mean to test something, that is, to see how or if it works. You can try the doorknob to see if the door is unlocked. You can try a new ice cream flavor to see if you like it.

The meaning of "try" here is closer to that second definition. When you "try" someone, you are testing the limits...of their patience. A person or more commonly a relationship can be "trying". A situation can be "trying" as well. It means it is difficult, or strenuous, or frustrating. If something is trying you, it is pushing you to your limits. Usually this means that whatever the person is doing or whatever is happening, they are expected to reach the edge of your limits. So why would our singer wish for this to happen? If you say that you wish that somebody would "try" you, it means that you are in the mood for a fight, and if somebody tries you, or "comes at you" or attacks you, they are not going to be happy that they did. You are already near your limits, and if somebody "tests" those limits, they are going to find out that you were just looking for a reason to get into a fight. You are ready to fight them, and you think that you will probably beat them.

The words "I swear" at the beginning are interesting as well, "I swear that I wish that somebody would try me". Swear has two distinct meanings in English. The first one means the same thing as the word "promise" or "vow". They all mean to make a strong commitment to something or someone. Generally speaking,  a promise is very general, "swearing" something is a bit more serious, and a vow is very formal. You "promise" to your wife that you'll buy groceries on the way home, you "swear" you'll never abandon her, and you made a "vow" to that effect on the day you were married. You'll mostly use the first two, "promise and swear", and they are more or less interchangeable, so don't stress about which one to use. Although they can be used interchangeably, they aren't grammatically used in the same way. We're going to take a few minutes and talk about the words "swear" and "promise" because they are used a lot and we want to make sure we're using them correctly.

Before I begin with the differences, I will say this: the easiest way to use both is with the word "that". "I promise that I will go to the store" and "I swear that I will go to the store" both work, and both mean pretty much the same thing. For something as casual as going to the store, you'll want to use the word "promise", but it's not a problem if you say "swear" instead. Other usages however, aren't as simple.

Let's begin with the different nouns we use with the words "promise" and "swear". Do you know which noun is attached to the word "promise"? I'll give you a hint: it's super easy. The noun for the word "promise" is...."promise!"  The commitment that is made when you make a promise, is called a promise.

Swearing is a little bit different though. Because it's more serious, we use the word "oath". You "swear" an "oath". You can't promise an oath. You swear an oath. An oath is sworn. An oath feels a lot more serious than a promise. It carries a weight that a promise doesn't.

Alright, easy stuff is out of the way. Let's dig into the prepositions we use with each word.

We'll start with an example. "I promise to take out the trash today." Notice the preposition "to" at the end there. It leads into what your promise is. "I promise to..." and then your verb. I promise to take out the trash, pick up my things, clean out the closet, do the dishes....whatever! It's a simpler way to say "I promise that I will do something".

On the other hand, you can't swear to do something, in the same way that you can promise to do something. You can swear "that" you will do something. "I swear THAT I will take out the trash". If we use the word "to" with swear, we need to have person or a thing afterwards. Instead of swearing that we will do an action, we are attaching our promise or oath TO that person or thing. You can swear to someone, for example, "I swear to you that I will take out the trash". This means that I'm telling you that I will take out the trash. It also carries with it a bit of responsibility. If I swear to YOU, I am accountable to YOU. If I don't do what I said I would do, I will accept the consequences FROM you. The most serious kind of oath, is to "swear to God".

Let's say someone is accusing you of lying, but you insist that you are telling the truth. You could say "I swear to God that I am telling the truth!". Depending on your religious beliefs, this could be a very serious thing to say! It's essentially saying that God himself will hold you to account or punish you if you're lying! It's staking your immortal soul on the fact that you're telling the truth.

There is another form of an oath, where you make your oath more serious by swearing *on* something or someone. This can vary in meaning, depending on what it is. For example, a common form of oath is to swear "on the Bible". This is similar to swearing "to God" in that it invokes God's wrath if you are lying.

Occasionally, you'll hear the expression "I swear on my mother's grave!" or "I swear on my son's life!". These are meant to be serious ways to express the depth of your oath.

The second one, to swear on someone's life, or something else of that nature, essentially means that if you are lying, their life can be taken, that is, they can die. Usually this carries an implication that God or some other spiritual force will kill them if you are lying. This is very dark and very serious and only used in the most serious of situations.

As a side note, you can't use the word "promise" in the same way.

Ok, I think that's enough prepositions for right now. Let's move on to the second possible meaning of the word "swear".

The second meaning of the word "swear" is exactly the same meaning as the word "cuss" or "curse" It means to say a word that is considered rude or impolite. These words are often called "swear words" or "curse words". These are words that are considered rude, impolite, or blasphemous. We could spend a long time talking about this as well, but we'll save that for a future episode.

So which version of the word do you think that our singer is using? Well, it's closest in definition to our first definition, a promise. But the way she is using it has further implications than just a simple promise. Let's look at the phrase again, "I swear I wish somebody would try me". She's swearing, but it's not stated what she's swearing. The implication here is that she is swearing that she will do something to somebody if they "try" her. Presumably fight them. A similar phrase can be used to make a threat. "I swear *if* somebody tries me...". It's a promise that anyone who tries you will be harmed.

And on that note, our chorus is done! There was a lot to unpack there, but I hope it was understandable. I certainly hope that I didn't try *your* patience! Next time we'll be discussing verse 2 of this song, and I hope you'll join us!

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