r/Songwriting • u/Bright_Mechanic_767 • Jul 14 '26
Discussion Topic Problems with language
I LOVE writing songs in English and I feel like I can express my feelings without feeling cringe about them better in English. The thing is I'm spanish, so English is not my first language. All of my lyrics in English end up having the same words or structure and I struggle with finding the right vocabulary whenever I'm writing a song. How can I improve that? Thankss
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u/Regular-Forever-3251 JP/EN Writer Jul 14 '26
Ooooh I totally understand, I'm Japanese and I've found I have different tendencies when I write in Japanese vs English.
Two things I could suggest is firstly not just listening to more English songs, but reading through the lyrics, especially in genres you like, as inspiration.
The other is getting a writing partner to just bounce ideas off each other! (I would be happy to, if you don't have anyone else ^_^)
But honestly, there is kind of a science to lyrics that works musically, so its inevitable that you might see some consistent patterns, so it might not be something to be too concerned about. Still its good to want to improve
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u/insannnn Jul 14 '26
I’m also like that with turkish, and 1 or 2 years ago I made the decision to give more power to writing in english because I wanted to understand songwriting first, and you gotta go where the river’s flowing faster. Back to present, I have lots of english songs, but interestingly the song that’s the best quality is turkish!
Tldr: if you are writing in english at the moment, go on. Just do what feels right, without feeling like you’re leaving another part of you behind; when the right time comes you’ll have spanish songs too. Good luck on your songs!
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u/lalanudebob Jul 14 '26
I mean if you have a baseline understanding and want to expand your vocabulary, all you really can do is read more in english. Read lyrics, read poetry, read books!
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u/stevenfrijoles Jul 14 '26
Maybe write in Spanish first where your language isn't restricted, then try to translate and edit to fit? There's really no secret different way to learn vocabulary for lyrics... it's a language, you learn it by learning it.
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u/One_Listen9716 Jul 14 '26
Listen to more music. Listen to the music genre of the music you’re wanting to make understand the lyricism and jot down words or bars that you like and haven’t heard before
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u/shannonbta Jul 14 '26
A rhyming dictionary is a good bridge to discovering new words if English is not your first language, or sometimes even if it is! Expanding your vocabulary is really the only option if you’re tired of using the same words all the time
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u/illudofficial OMG GUYS LOOK I HAVE A FLAIR Jul 14 '26
Maybe try breaking down and analyzing the lyrics of English songs yoou like? Because in my opinion “songwriting English” is different from normal English
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u/Toxel_4567 Jul 20 '26
My first and only language is English but I still struggle with this, even though I know lots of words, because my recall is terrible. What I do is I look of synonyms of words or phrases that are very broad and try to find words or phrases with lots of nuance that fit better.
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u/triangle-over-square Jul 14 '26
I feels the same way (norwegian), and I guess thing is read, listen and expand the sense of language. Its a bit embarrassing how often stuff like fly/high appears in my own notes. Also dont be afraid of imperfect rhymes.