Maggie Mae – English Lyrics

• By: The Beatles
• Album: Let It Be

Lyrics & Translation

Dive into the roots of British music with 'Maggie Mae'! This song is a fantastic way to learn rhythmic English phrasing and explore the traditional folk vocabulary that shaped the legends of rock and roll.

[English]

作词 :  John Lennon

作曲 : John Lennon

Oh dirty Maggie Mae they have taken her away

And she never walk down Lime Street any more

Oh the judge he guilty found her for robbing a homeward bounder

That dirty no good robbing Maggie Mae

This is a part of Liverpool, they returned me to

Two pounds ten a week, that was my pay

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
dirty /ˈdɜːrti/ A1	adjective - not clean; dishonest or immoral
taken /ˈteɪkən/ A2	verb - past participle of take; to carry or move something
walk /wɔːk/ A1	verb - to move on foot
judge /dʒʌdʒ/ A2	noun - a person who decides cases in a law court
guilty /ˈɡɪlti/ B1	adjective - responsible for a specified wrongdoing
found /faʊnd/ A2	verb - past tense of find; to discover or declare
robbing /ˈrɒbɪŋ/ B1	verb - the act of stealing from someone
homeward /ˈhoʊmwərd/ B2	adjective - directed towards home
bounder /ˈbaʊndər/ C2	noun - a person of objectionable behavior (archaic/slang usage)
returned /rɪˈtɜːrnd/ A2	verb - to give or send back
pounds /paʊndz/ A2	noun - a unit of currency (British)
week /wiːk/ A1	noun - a period of seven days
pay /peɪ/ A1	noun - money given for work done

Key Grammar Structures

• They have taken her away

  ➔ Present Perfect Tense

  ➔ Used to describe an action that happened at an unspecified time in the past with results in the present.

• She never walk down Lime Street any more

  ➔ Adverb of frequency/negation (Never...any more)

  ➔ The combination of "never" and "any more" emphasizes the permanent cessation of an action.

• The judge he guilty found her

  ➔ Left Dislocation (Topicalization)

  ➔ Repeating the subject "The judge" with the pronoun "he" is a stylistic choice to highlight the actor.

• For robbing a homeward bounder

  ➔ Gerund after preposition

  ➔ The "-ing" form functions as a noun object of the preposition "for".

• This is a part of Liverpool, they returned me to

  ➔ Reduced Relative Clause (Omission of 'that/which')

  ➔ The relative pronoun is omitted because it acts as the object of the preposition "to".

• Two pounds ten a week

  ➔ Quantifier expression of rate

  ➔ Using "a" (or "per") to express the rate of pay over a specific time period.