What the song is about
The singer describes a trip through the airport step by step: arriving at the terminal, checking in, going through security, waiting at the gate, boarding the plane and taking off. The mood is happy and relaxed, so it is a good song for learning the vocabulary of a trip by plane.
Useful words and expressions
- terminal: the airport building where passengers arrive and leave
- counter: the desk where you check in
- passport / visa: travel documents; a visa is stamped (marked with an official stamp)
- luggage is weighed: your bags are put on a scale
- security: the place where bags and people are checked
- taking off my shoes: removing your shoes (here, for the security check)
- tray: the plastic box for your things at security
- the screens: the monitors that show flight information
- last call: the final announcement before the gate closes
- The speaker announces our flight is on time: the flight is not late
- boarding the plane: getting on the plane
- stow my bag: put your bag away in its place
- fasten the seatbelt: close your seatbelt
- runway: the long road where planes take off and land
- depart: leave
- takeoff: the moment the plane leaves the ground
- smooth sailing: an idiom meaning that everything goes easily, with no problems
Grammar
- Present simple for telling a story step by step: We arrive at the terminal, I walk to the counter, I look for my seat. The present simple makes the story feel alive, as if it is happening right now.
- Passive voice: my visa is stamped, my luggage is weighed. We use the passive when the person who does the action (the airport staff) is not important.
- Imperatives for instructions: Fasten your seatbelt. This is how announcements and flight attendants talk.
- Future continuous: Soon we will be flying above every cloud describes an action that will be in progress at a time in the future.
- Lines without a subject: Now going through security, taking off my shoes and Walking to the gate, looking for the sign drop the words I am. This is common in songs. In normal speech, say I'm going through security and I'm walking to the gate.
Song language, not everyday English
Some lines bend the words to make a rhyme:
- nothing is cramped is there to rhyme with stamped. People don't usually describe checked luggage this way.
- At security you walk through a scanner or metal detector. The gate in Verse 2 is a loose word choice. In everyday English, the gate is where you board the plane.
- A small bag usually goes under the seat in front of you, not right under my feet. That phrase is chosen to rhyme with seat.
- truly sublime is very poetic and formal. In conversation you would say I feel great or I'm so excited.
- Smooth sailing is a real idiom, but it is used here about a plane, just for the image.