ESLSongs

Practice family members and the third person singular in your ESL class with this song, Our House by Madness.

• The members of the family that appear in these song lyrics are: father, mother, kids, sister, brother & mum.
• The verbs in the third person singular which appear in these lyrics are: wears, needs, has, is, tells, slows, gets, sends & sees.
• This song can also be used to practice tenses in general as it also contains examples of: the present continuous, going to, past simple, would (with the meaning: used to), & used to.

There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes below, but for more ideas, click here.

Lyrics

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep (ah)
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, it has a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
Our mum she’s so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down and a mess is not allowed

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our (something tells you that you’ve got to move away from it)

Father gets up late for work
Mother has to iron his shirt
Then she sends the kids to school
Sees them off with a small kiss (ah)
She’s the one they’re going to miss in lots of ways

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

I remember way back then when everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time, such a fine time
Such a happy time
And I remember how we’d play, simply waste the day away
Then we’d say nothing would come between us
Two dreamers

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, was our castle and our keep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, that was where we used to sleep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street, our house

Suggested activity: fill the gaps

Download this exercise (PDF)

Try to put the verbs in brackets into the correct form: present simple 3^rd person singular (11), present continuous (3), going to (1), past simple (1) & used to (1)

Then listen to the song to check

Father ¹_________________ (wear) his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she ²_________________ (need) a rest
The kids ³_________________ (play) up downstairs
Sister⁴_________________ (sigh) in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, it ⁵_________________ (have) a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
Our mum she’s so house-proud
Nothing ever ⁶_________________ (slow) her down and a mess is not allowed

Our house, in the middle of our street (x4)
(something tells you that you’ve got to move away from it)

Father ⁷_________________ (get) up late for work
Mother ⁸_________________ (have) to iron his shirt
Then she ⁹_________________ (send) the kids to school
She ¹⁰_________________ (see) them off with a small kiss
She’s the one they¹¹_________________ (miss) in lots of ways

Our house, in the middle of our street…

I remember way back then when everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time, such a fine time, such a happy time
And I remember how we’d play, simply waste the day away
Then we’d say nothing would come between us, two dreamers

Father ¹²_________________ (wear) his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she ¹³_________________ (need) a rest
The kids ¹⁴_________________ (play) up downstairs
Sister¹⁵_________________ (sigh) in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street…

Our house, ¹⁶_________________ (be) our castle and our keep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, that was where we ¹⁷_________________ (sleep)
Our house, in the middle of our street…

Madness (band)

Madness are an English ska and pop band from Camden Town, north west London, who formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s two-tone ska revival, they continue to perform with six of the seven members of their original line-up. Madness’s most successful period was from 1980 to 1986, when the band’s songs spent a total of 214 weeks on the UK Singles Chart.