When did everyone start writing 'where' instead of 'were'?

[HardStareBear]

It seems to be everywhere at the moment. In my accent they sound completely different. I know that they're more similar sounding in other accents, but 'were' is a word that we see frequently in books, magazines etc. so why do people think that it is written 'where'?

I haven't noticed this, any more than people normally getting things wrong.

Haven’t noticed it

I haven’t noticed this at all. I’ve seen plenty using ‘then’ instead of ‘than’ though.

Autocorrect?

I haven't noticed this as all.

I haven't noticed it, but it is probably just autocorrect.

I agree OP. Once you see it, it's everywhere.

Don't see then/than though

Perhaps they're the same people who write "there" or "their" for they're. My friend does this. She even gets confused with too/to/two and through/threw. She's 66!

I never see that. I see ‘I’m/am’ a hell of a lot though. I can see the confusion if English isn’t your face language but if it is then you really don’t have an excuse

Autocorrect changes were to we're, so I think people assume it's wrong, maybe? I

Around the same time they started writing "his" instead of "he's".

I suspect that you have a similar accent to mine, given your username. It's really obvious and jarring when you read it in a Scottish accent 😂

I see that often along with 'his' instead of "he's" 🤦🏾‍♀️

I do see some, but not nearly as many as ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’.

I have found as Ive got older I make a lot of mistakes that I didnt make when younger, I know the differences in similar sounding words but sometimes I'll read something back and its all wrong. I also tend to write things phonetically now, have no idea why

Ahh the dyslexics can't catch a break

And ‘he’s’ instead of ‘his’! ‘He put on he’s shoes’.

I don’t know, OP. I do see it on here, though less than brought for bought or ‘I done a course’.

Agree. I know the difference but when typing on my phone I often get caught by autocorrect.

I just checked, and on my phone, "were" automatically autocorrects to "we're." Do I know the difference? Yep.

Do I always check phone messages or Mumsnet posts. Nah. Because I'm not in the day job.

Would I make the same mistake when writing something important? No.

In the same way you probably wouldn't have missed the capital letter after a full stop in your OP @HardStareBear

@quietnightmare
I'm dyslexic.
I know the difference between where, we're and were.
Also they're, there and their!

Spellcheck. It gets if you spell their/there/they’re wrong but doesn’t context check.

Probably at the same time people started using ect. instead of etc.

And also the favourites, should of, could of and would of.

Im dyslexic too
I understand the difference between them also but don't forget there are different levels of severity with dyslexia so keep that in mind

‘Where’ and ‘were’ sound the same but are used differently in a sentence. So they’ve they’ve always been used surely?

They sound completely different in most accents!