Willie Nelson, 1961

The song “Crazy” was a country music hit that crossed over to become a pop music hit as well. Although written in 1961, it continues to make “top songs” lists.  In 2003, the U.S. Library of Congress chose the recording by country singer Patsy Cline to preserve for future generations.
The song’s slow tempo and straightforward lyrics make it ideal for the language classroom. It’s great for teaching grammar–the song has many gerunds following the preposition for.

Choose from the following activities:

• Listening Listen to the audio-only video by singer-songwriter Willie Nelson while reading the lyrics below. Lyrics intended for nonprofit educational use only.

Crazy, lyrics, Willie Nelson.pdf

• Grammar The English language seems uniquely fond of gerunds, using the -ing form of a verb as a noun where other languages might use an infinitive or an entirely different construction. (Consider the English sentence Thank you for helping me and the Spanish sentence Gracias por ayudarme.) The worksheet below, for levels low intermediate and up, gives students practice using gerunds after prepositions. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

preposition + gerund.docx          preposition + gerund.pdf

preposition + gerund (webpage)

Although gerunds aren’t usually covered until the higher levels, my high-beginning students quickly caught on to the preposition + gerund construction after hearing it repeated in the song “Crazy.” Here is the worksheet above at a high-beginning level. (In my class, I de-emphasized the words gerund and preposition.) Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

preposition + gerund, L2, pdf

•  Grammar / Listening Listen to the audio-only Patsy Cline recording of the song while completing the gap-fill exercise below, filling in the gerunds. Lyrics intended for nonprofit educational use only. 

Crazy, gerunds.docx          Crazy, gerunds.pdf

• Whisper-Singing Listen to the audio-only video by singer-songwriter Willie Nelson while reading the lyrics below. Whisper-Sing along with Nelson, mouthing the words inaudibly or barely audibly. Students who do not like to sing aloud are generally comfortable with this activity. Lyrics intended for nonprofit educational use only.

Crazy, lyrics, Willie Nelson.pdf

• Listening Watch the Willie Nelson / Sheryl Crow concert performance of the song and/or the informal performance by two young musicians, which seems to have been recorded in someone’s living room. (My students really liked it.)