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I was listening a song called To The Left from Beyonce. There is a part that she sings: “Because you was untrue Rolling her around in the car that I bought you Baby you dropped them keys Hurry up before your taxi leaves”.

Could you guys explain me what does she mean? If she was talking about the car keys, it shouldn’t be “you dropped its keys”

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  • It's just poetically licensed bad grammar. It should also be "because you were untrue", and probably "baby, you dropped the keys" or "those keys".
    – Hellion
    Feb 23, 2018 at 18:06
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because lyrics interpretation is mostly a matter of opinion.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 23, 2018 at 18:07

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Ignoring the context for the moment - native speakers tend to substitute "those" with "them" quite frequently.

It means the same thing, but it is very informal.

Eg - "Are you going to eat those apples?" becomes "Are you going to eat them apples?". Both sentences mean the same thing, the second one is what you would say to your best friend and not to a stranger.

You're on the right track with "its keys" but she's referencing them indirectly. Grammatically her wording should have been "you dropped those keys".

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    I wouldn't say that it is informal, but that it is in a non-standard (but common) variety of English. I would never use them for those - it's not in the variety of English I was brought up to speak - but for many English speakers, it is normal.
    – Colin Fine
    Feb 23, 2018 at 18:24
  • @ColinFine well by process of elimination it has to be informal. It’s definitely not formal. I also use it every day in Irish English when talking to friends, I know it’s not technically correct though - hence the informality.
    – Andre
    Feb 23, 2018 at 18:41
  • OK, I agree that it is not formal. But my point was that, while it is not grammatical in any standard variety of English, it is normal in several non-standard varieties.
    – Colin Fine
    Feb 23, 2018 at 18:56
  • @ColinFine that’s fine, Colin.
    – Andre
    Feb 23, 2018 at 19:03

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