Tonight’s song is about something everybody feels sooner or later: you grow up, and suddenly everyone wants you to make money.
Learn from Songs · Unit 10: Relative clauses · B1–B2
Stressed Out
A song about growing up, money worries and missing childhood: reduced relative clauses (a boy named…, a character called…, kids playing pretend), leaving out the pronoun (sounds no one has heard), and, along the way, used to and wish, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Not me. I’m never growing up.
SOPHIA
That’s exactly what the singer wishes. He remembers the days when he and his friends played pretend, and he wants to go back.
PHILO
Play pretend? Like when we were pirates on the harbour wall?
Before you listen: the song
Columbus, Ohio, 2015
Twenty One Pilots are a duo from Columbus, Ohio: Tyler Joseph, who writes and sings, and Josh Dun, who plays the drums. “Stressed Out” was on their album Blurryface (2015). Blurryface is a character invented by Tyler: a figure representing all the things he feels insecure about.
The song became a huge hit in 2015 and 2016, with a video filmed in Tyler’s childhood neighbourhood, where the two musicians ride on giant tricycles, with their real parents taking part.
In the song, the singer wishes he could turn back time to the good old days. When he was a child, he used to play pretend and dream about space, but now everyone tells him to wake up and make money. He is stressed out, and he misses the time when nobody worried about anything.
What did you used to dream about?
Listen: then and now
PHILO
Listen once. What did he do as a child? What does everybody tell him now?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A. Listen for the voice that sounds different: that is Blurryface.
🧸 Listen to the song: “Stressed Out” (Tyler Joseph, 2015), by Twenty One Pilots.Listen to the official recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Stressed Out”, Twenty One Pilots.Read the lyrics →
Reduced relatives: -ing and past participle
MARCOS
Kids playing pretend (= who are playing). A character called Blurryface (= who is called).
SOPHIA
We can shorten a relative clause: noun + -ing for an active meaning, noun + past participle for a passive meaning: a boy named Sue, songs written in 2015, the people living next door.
Leaving out the pronoun
DEMETRIA
He wants the sounds no one has ever heard (= that no one has ever heard).
SOPHIA
When the relative pronoun is the object of its clause, we often leave it out: the song (that) I love, the friend (who) I miss. Not when it is the subject: the friend who lives here.
Used to and wish
PHILO
We used to play pirates. I wish we could do it again.
SOPHIA
used to + verb for past habits that have stopped. wish + could / past simple for things we want to be different now. You studied both in Units 7 and 9: here they meet a relative clause.
Sophia’s comparison: the golden age
SOPHIA
The poet Hesiod said that the first people lived in a golden age, without work or worry, and that every age since has been harder. Every generation thinks it was happier as children.
PHILO
And Ecclesiastes warns us not to ask why the old days were better than these: it is not wise to ask that.
DEMETRIA
So it’s fine to remember. Just don’t live there.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| noun + -ing | reduced active clause | kids playing pretend (= who were playing) |
| noun + past participle | reduced passive clause | a character called Blurryface (= who is called) |
| (that / who) + subject + verb | leaving out object pronouns | sounds no one has heard |
| used to + verb | past habits | We used to play pretend. |
| wish + could / past simple | wanting the present to be different | I wish we could go back. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. What did the singer use to do as a child?
2. What does everybody tell him to do now?
3. What does he wish?
4. Who is Blurryface?
5. Where is the duo from?
6. What do they ride in the video?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. I know a boy Philo. (name)
8. Look at those kids pretend. (play)
9. It’s a song in 2015. (write)
10. These are the sounds no one has ever . (hear)
11. We to play pirates on the wall.
12. I wish we go back in time.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “A character calling Blurryface represents his fears.”
14. “The kids playing in the street are my cousins.”
15. “The friend lives next door is called Tom.”
16. “The song I love most is from 2015.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Then and now. Bring a childhood photo (or imagine one). Describe it with reduced clauses: That’s me, wearing a pirate hat. The boy standing next to me is…
Discuss. 1. Were you happier as a child? Why, or why not? 2. Why do adults worry so much about money? 3. What would you like to keep from your childhood?
Write (120–150 words). The good old days. Describe a place you used to love as a child. Use at least two reduced relative clauses, one clause without a pronoun, used to and I wish…
Now play the gamebook: an old friend, a toy ship, and too much work.Play the gamebook →