14. The Wacky Wasn't - Weren't Error

The Wacky Wasn't/Weren't Error

Hello, Everybody! I hope you've all had a great week and have been able to relax and enjoy the summertime. Have you noticed any grammar errors on signs, in newspapers, on TV, and from people you've heard speaking? I'd love to hear about them. (No names, please!) Maddeningly, for me, a day doesn't go by without some mistake rearing its ugly little head! Since I've been writing this blog, I'm amazed to hear from so many people that feel as I do. We can do better! And nearly everyone has pet peeves about our language. So...today's lesson will address one I used to hear in school all the time! I don't know if this is mainly a Columbus County boo-boo, but it surely is heard around here enough to belong to us.

Groan...What's up with the misuse of WASN'T and WEREN'T? Here's the kind of thing I've heard way too many times:

Lewis WEREN'T going to the lake today unless Ann went with him.

I WEREN'T the only one who failed that test.

It WEREN'T me who wrecked that car!

Now, please tell me that none of you would ever say anything like these examples!!

What's going on in these sentences is that one of the wrong past tense forms of the verb "to be" (WEREn't) is being used instead of the correct one (WASn't). By the way, for some reason, this problem doesn't seem to appear very much unless the negative part of these words--the n't--is added. ( For example, it's rare to hear someone say, "Lewis WERE going to the lake today unless Ann went with him." Whew...Thank goodness.) The verb "to be" is probably the most irregular verb in our language and we do have lots of different kinds of trouble with it. However, for now, we're going to focus only on this part of the problem.

This is all you need to know: Just remember that the use of WEREn't is only correct when it is used with 2nd person singular and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person plural subjects. Now for anyone out there who may have forgotten what this means, just think about conjugating verbs. Did you ever do that in school?

The conjugation of verbs simply means the arrangement of verbs by tenses, number, gender, case, etc. Here, we mean tense, number, and gender. If you've ever studied a foreign language, you've very likely been introduced to this, since being able to conjugate a verb can be an important part of learning the language. Nevertheless, if you haven't studied a new language, never fear...no problem. Let me show you.

Here's the conjugation of the verb TO BE in the past tense:

SINGULAR

I was (first person)

You were (second person)

He, She, It was (third person)


PLURAL

We were (first person)

You were (second person)

They were (third person)



Did you notice that WERE is shown only beside "You" (second person singular), "We" (first person plural), "You" (second person plural), and "They" (third person plural)? Now how does this relate to the three sentences above? In the conjugation, only PRONOUNS are used, but they "stand for" the subject that the verb agrees with in the sentence.

So...in the first sentence, "he" would stand for "Lewis." You can see that "he" is third person singular, so the correct verb is not WERE, but WAS. (Or WASN'T in this case.) Incidentally, this is the only time when the gender issue applies -- if a female or "it" is the subject, both would also use WAS.

In the second sentence, "I" (the pronoun) is actually used, so you can see above that only WASn't is correct (first person singular)

In the third sentence, "It" is, again, third person singular, so WASn't is correct. I must say here that this example sentence is not a good one at all because there is no antecedent for "It" in the sentence -- that is, there's no word that stands for "It." The sentence would be much more agreeable if it read "I'm not the one who wrecked that car," but because this error is heard so often in conversation, I have reluctantly included it. Try your best to avoid this type of weak sentence, but if you must say this, at least get the verb right! Use WASn't!! Thank you.

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks again for visiting. Peace and happiness, GG