When to choose between using we're, was or were, and where

Know where to use them correctly in sentences

Hey! Since Monday, I’ve sent two newsletters to you; I sent one on Monday and the other one yesterday. It feels you’re reading me too much now, right? I trust you’re loving it though. I should promise you that this is going to be the last one for this week.

Today, we’re going to look at the differences between we’re, were, was or were, and where to use where

We’re /wɪə/, contracted, is the usual spoken form of we are.

For example:

1. We’re a people of Nigeria.

2. We’re alive today, and that’s one big reason we should be grateful for the gift of life, no matter our present situation.

The verb ‘are’ in “We’re” [=we are] is a linking verb. It links the subject of the sentence ‘we’ with its complements [a people, alive]

Were /wɜːʳ/ as a plural verb and second person singular of the past tense of verb be. For example:

1. They/you were at the party previous night last night yesternight.

2. You didn’t tell me you were coming to see me before.

3. They must have told you how they were given some party Jollof rice at the event.

We use were after the verb ‘wish’. It doesn’t matter the number [=she, the men]

1. I wish she were my wife.

2. She wishes the men were here.

Yesterday was her birthday! A phenomenal woman, elegantly beautiful, a very good friend and woman of God

If you’re discussing things that are unreal or conditional, then use were [=I were and he/she/it were] after subordinators like as though, as if, and if.

1. Mr Francis speaks as if he were a professor.

2. If I were rich, I’d [I would[ indulge in the pleasures of life.

3. His father talked to him as though he were a child.

As it were?

Seemingly, in a way, as in He was living in a dream world, as it were. A shortening of “as if it were so,” this idiom has been in use since Chaucer's time (he had it in his Nun's Priest's Tale, c. 1386). Also see so to speak.

—www.dictionary.com

Was is a past tense indicative form of be, meaning “to exist or live,” and is used in the first person singular (I) and the third person singular (he/she/it).

1. I was at a supermarket yesterday to get some groceries.

2. I was naughty when I was a child.

3. We turned down the music because it was too loud.

A big rule of thumb:

Use were, not was in unreal and conditional statements as you can see in the examples above.

WHERE TO USE WHERE /wɛər/.

WHERE can be used as an interrogative pronoun of place:

1. Where are you?

2. Where are you going?

'Wear' and 'where' have the same pronunciation /wɛər/. If you can correctly pronounce 'fair' as /fɛər/, you'll know how to pronounce both 'wear' and 'where'.

WHERE can be used as a subordinating conjunction in noun clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses to talk about a place:

1. I don’t know where you are. [=noun clause, object of the verb phrase “don’t know”]

2. Where the man lives remains unknown. [=noun clause, subject of the verb “remains”]

3. Nigeria is a country where there are many talents. [=relative clause, it modifies the noun phrase “a country”]

4. I found the boy where his mother abandoned him. [=adverbial clause, it talks more about the verb “found”]

It’s been a long ride with you. I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as I enjoy writing it to you. Till I write to you again, please stay safe!

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Yours in English,

Francis