Learn English with Taylor Swift: Nine Words and Phrases from Picture to Burn

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Picture to Burn is Taylor’s second song on her debut album. If you missed it, we already looked at the words and phrases in her first debut hit, Tim McGraw. Picture to Burn was written by Taylor Swift the she was only 16 years old so it is a song about teenage love and a high school crush and breakup. Some of the words and ideas used in it feel very young and immature, and that’s because they are! But, if you take them out of the song, a lot of the words she uses are very useful to learn to use in English no matter how old you are!

Before we look at the words, have a listen to the entire song:

1. State the obvious
   • The lyric: State the obvious I didn’t get my perfect fantasy
   • Meaning: To state the obvious is to say something that everyone already knows. But you may say this if you still want to say it — if you think, maybe, that everyone needs to be reminded.
   • Example: I know I’m stating the obvious, but our sales have fallen and we need to find solutions to increase them!
2. Obsessive
   • The lyric: Go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive
   • Meaning: To be obsessive is to be very focused on something, in a negative way. This can sometimes go so far as being a diagnosed medical issue, but it usually is much simpler than that.
   • Example: I am obsessive about how clean my house is, there can’t be a hair or a crumb anywhere!
3. Pickup truck
   • The lyric: I hate that stupid old pickup truck
   • Meaning: A pickup truck is a vehicle that has a cabin where the driver and any passengers sit and an open bed in the back which does not have a roof and is usually used to carry heavy things. In Australia a pickup truck is called a ute.
   • Example: I am a construction worked so I need a pickup truck to get my tools to work.
4. Redneck
   • The lyric: You’re a redneck heartbreak
   • Meaning: The term redneck is a slang term used in the US. It is not a nice term to use but it is still fairly common. It refers to be people who seem to be uneducated and work on farms. The term comes from the sunburns farmers often get on the back of their necks.
   • Example: When I hear people with a southern accent talk I often assume they are rednecks.
5. Heartbreak
   • The lyric: You’re a redneck heartbreak
   • Meaning: It’s important to note that this word has multiple meanings, here it is used as a noun. In this instance a heartbreak is a person who people often fall in love with buy who that person does not love back. They therefore then break many hearts.
   • Example: All the girls love her but she’s a total heartbreak, she doesn’t want a relationship and only cares about sports right now!
6. Strike a match
   • The lyric: So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time
   • Meaning: A match is a short piece of wood that is used to start a fire. Usually matches come in small boxes and the action of quickly rubbing them to start the fire is to strike. Here, there is no literal fire but instead something being wasted, or burned away.
   • Example: I struck a match to get the fire started before it got too cold.
7. Revenge
   • The lyric: I’m just sitting here planning my revenge
   • Meaning: Revenge here is used as a noun and it means what you do to get someone back for something bad they did to you.
   • Example: After my brother threw a bucket of water over my head I took a few minutes to plan what I would do to get my revenge.
8. You’ll be sorry
   • The lyric: My daddy’s gonna show you how sorry you’ll be
   • Meaning: The way the phrase is used in the lyrics is actually slightly different than the phrase. The phrase means that someone should be careful what they do because someone else is going to get angry at them or do something bad back to them.
   • Example: Don’t you dare eat my ice cream, you’ll be sorry if you do!
9. Keep it to yourself
   • The lyric: You’d better keep it to yourself
   • Meaning: To keep something to yourself is to not tell a secret or information to anyone else.
   • Example: There’s a big surprise party next weekend, but make sure you keep it to yourself, we don’t want Sara to find out!

There are plenty of other words in the lyrics of Picture to Burn, but these ones are a great starting point. If you want to practice more, listen a few times over to make sure you hear the words correctly then practicing saying the lines out loud. After that, try creating your own example sentences with each of these words and phrases. If you want help seeing if those sentences are all correct, let’s chat one-on-one in a lesson!