No. 33· behind-the-music
You, I and We in the English Lyrics
In the English lyric sheets of dear(you); vol.1, you-words appear 137 times, I-words 55 times and we-words 28 times. In nine of ten songs, you outnumbers I.
The album is called dear(you);, so we might expect the word "you" to be everywhere in the lyrics. This post counts you-words, I-words and we-words in the English version (Version A) of the lyric sheets, to see in numbers who the ten songs are talking to.
The scope and method first. We read the English lyric section of the ten song design documents. The documents were written on 2026-07-04 when the songs were commissioned, so what is sung may differ, and we did not check the counts against the audio. We removed the section-marker lines (#, >, ---) and the whispered lines, lowercased the rest and counted whole words. The you-words are you, your, yours, yourself, you're, you'll, you've and you'd. The I-words are i, me, my, mine, myself, i'm, i'll, i've and i'd. The we-words are we, us, our, ours, we'll, we're, we've, plus let's. We did not count the Korean version. The music is made with AI (Suno); the lyrics are drafted by AI and reviewed by a person.
The counts
| Song | Lyric lines | Words | you-words | I-words | we-words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 54 | 232 | 19 | 5 | 0 |
| 02 | 53 | 206 | 15 | 8 | 2 |
| 03 | 78 | 296 | 11 | 9 | 2 |
| 04 | 76 | 306 | 12 | 6 | 0 |
| 05 | 63 | 267 | 14 | 2 | 4 |
| 06 | 76 | 263 | 16 | 6 | 4 |
| 07 | 64 | 250 | 10 | 14 | 2 |
| 08 | 74 | 250 | 22 | 5 | 2 |
| 09 | 66 | 243 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| 10 | 69 | 241 | 14 | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 137 | 55 | 28 |
The table sums to 137 you-words, 55 I-words and 28 we-words. The you-words are more than twice the I-words.
Two exceptions
Song 07 is the only song where I-words (14) outnumber you-words (10). In the other nine, you is on top, and it is highest in song 08 with 22.
Song 09 has a different shape: you 4, I 0, we 7. It is the only song where we-words are the largest of the three groups, and "I" never appears. Song 10 also has no I-words. The songs with no we-words at all are 01 and 04.
What we are not claiming
- The line counts include every line under a section tag, and a repeated chorus is counted each time.
- We did not count the Korean version. Korean often leaves the subject out, so the same comparison may not hold there.
- That the sheets match what is sung. The counts come from the 2026-07-04 design documents, not the audio.
- That more words means a lyric is closer to the listener, or anything about how a listener will feel. We counted words and did not interpret meaning, and no medical or other effect is claimed.
Listen
- 06 You're Not Alone. (혼자가 아니야.) — English version · Korean version (you 16 · I 6 · we 4)
- 10 You Did So Well Today. (오늘도... 정말 고생했어.) — English version · Korean version (the song with no I-words)
Once more, plainly: the music is made with AI (Suno); the lyrics are drafted by AI and reviewed by a person. You can also listen on the idle() home page.
Related
- The other-language whispers: Whispers in the Other Language
- The titles: Ten Titles, Read as Sentences