Common Brazilian Mistakes: Music or Song? (1 minute video lesson)

Today’s one-minute video lesson from RealLife TV will cover one of most common false cognate mistakes among Brazilian English learners. Even advanced learners make it. In fact, I’ve even heard native English speakers who, after learning Portuguese, have made this mistake.

This lesson explores the very common Brazilian confusion between the words MUSIC and SONG! Enjoy!

Free E-book: 101 Words You Will Never Learn in School

Transcription

Hey guys, how’s it going? I’m Justin, welcome to another one-minute episode of RealLife TV. Today, I’m going to teach you the difference between music and song, a very common mistake that you Brazilians make when speaking English, so stay tuned.

The Difference Between Music and Song

Ok, so, a lot of Brazilians make this mistake. They come to me and they say “Hey, I like this music.” “Hey, what’s your favorite music?” And a lot of times they’re not trying to say what music really means.

Music is not countable in English. So, we say music is like, you have rap music, rock music, sertanejo music. But, when you’re talking about a specific 3 or 4 minute audio track, this is called a song, which is countable.

So, normally a CD has 12 or 13 song, but the type of music, or the genre of music, is what you like, the general style.

So, “what kind of music do you like?” “I like rock music.”

“What’s your favorite song?” “Stairway to Heaven.”

Song:

• Countable
• Specific 3 to 4 minute audio track
• “My favorite song is playing on the radio.”
• “Do you know the lyrics to the song Stairway to Heaven?

Music: 

• Uncountable
• A general type or “genre” of music
• “Rap Music,” “Rock Music“

So, there you have it, those are the differences between music and song. I hope you guys enjoyed the lesson today and I’ll see you guys next time.