student asking question

What is "a-ringing"? Is it one word?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"A-ringing" means "ringing." This isn't an actual word. This is a made-up word that Coldplay created to make it sound similar to "are singing." The song doesn't sound as nice with just the word "ringing." This is fairly common in music. Many artists will do similar things like this to make their songs sound a certain way.

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