Tonight’s song is a telephone call. A young man calls the girl he loves, but her mother answers, and she won’t let him speak to her.
Learn from Songs · Unit 3: Questions · B1
Sylvia’s Mother
A heartbreaking phone call, told as a song: polite questions and requests (Could I…? May I…? Would you mind…?), indirect questions (Could you tell me where she is?), and Why not?, with Marcos, his best friend, and a door he can’t get past.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
Why not?
SOPHIA
That is exactly what he keeps asking. And it’s a true story.
MARCOS
Another one by the man who wrote A Boy Named Sue!
Before you listen: the song
New York, 1972
“Sylvia’s Mother” was the first hit for Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, in 1972. It was written by Shel Silverstein, the poet and cartoonist who also wrote “A Boy Named Sue”.
It really happened to him. Silverstein had been in love with a woman called Sylvia. When he heard she was going to marry another man, he phoned her house, and her mother answered. He only changed her surname in the song.
In the song, a young man calls from a public phone and begs Sylvia’s mother to let him speak to her, just once. The mother is polite, but she finds one reason after another why he can’t: Sylvia is busy, she is packing, she is leaving to get married far away, she doesn’t want to cry. Meanwhile, the operator keeps asking him for more coins.
Decades later, a Dutch television producer found the real Sylvia and her mother, and they told their side of the story.
Please, let me talk to her, just for a moment.
Listen: the phone call
PHILO
Listen once. Who is speaking? Who does he want to speak to? Why can’t he?
SOPHIA
Then listen for the polite questions and requests. Answer Section A.
📞 Listen to the song: “Sylvia’s Mother” (Shel Silverstein, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, 1972).Find the recording on YouTube →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Sylvia’s Mother”, Dr. Hook.Read the lyrics →
Polite questions and requests
DEMETRIA
Could I speak to Sylvia, please? May I come in?
SOPHIA
From more direct to more polite: Can I…? → Could I…? → May I…? And to ask someone to do something: Can you…? → Could you…? → Would you mind + -ing? Would you mind giving her this message?
Indirect questions and Why not?
MARCOS
Could you tell me where she is? She can’t come to the phone. Why not?
SOPHIA
Indirect questions sound more polite: Where is she? → Could you tell me where she is? (statement order!). And Why not? asks for the reason behind a negative: She can’t come. Why not?
Phone language
PHILO
In the song there’s also an operator. What did people say on the phone?
SOPHIA
Hello, is Sylvia there? Can I take a message? Hold on a moment. Who’s calling? I’ll put her on. She can’t come to the phone right now. And on a public phone: Please insert more coins.
Sophia’s comparison: a door that won’t open
SOPHIA
In the Song of Songs, a young man knocks at his beloved’s door at night, and by the time she opens it, he is gone.
DEMETRIA
And Penelope kept a hundred suitors waiting at her door for twenty years, with a weaving trick.
MARCOS
So doors in love stories are always trouble.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Can I…? / Could I…? / May I…? | asking permission, more and more polite | Could I speak to Sylvia, please? |
| Could you…? / Would you mind + -ing? | asking someone to do something | Would you mind giving her a message? |
| Could you tell me + wh- + statement | polite indirect questions | Could you tell me where she is? |
| Why not? | asking the reason for a negative | She can’t come. Why not? |
| Is… there? Can I take a message? | phone language | Who’s calling? |
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. Who answers the phone?
2. What does the young man want?
3. Why is Sylvia busy?
4. How is the mother?
5. Who else interrupts the call?
6. Is the story true?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. I speak to Sylvia, please? (very polite, permission)
8. Would you mind her a message? (give)
9. Could you tell me where she ? (be)
10. She can’t come to the phone. “Why ?”
11. Can I take a ? (on the phone)
12. Hold a moment, please.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Could you tell me where is Sylvia?”
14. “May I speak to her, please?”
15. “Would you mind to close the door?”
16. “Can I take a message?”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Phone role-play. One person calls and asks to speak to someone; the other gives polite reasons why they can’t, and offers to take a message.
Discuss. 1. Was the mother right to protect her daughter? 2. Is it better to say goodbye or to leave without a word? 3. How have phone calls changed since 1972?
Write (80–100 words). The message. Write the message the young man would like Sylvia to read, and the mother’s polite reply.
Now play the gamebook: Marcos tries to say goodbye to his best friend.Play the gamebook →