To really really hate it when people use "was" instead of "were"?

[Sansarya]

Irrational of me I know, but it really irritates me when people say "when you was" or "what was you doing" etc. Does this make anyone else a bit ragey?

And yes I know I’m a grammar pedant and no doubt BVVU!

[toomuchtooold]

sunny you're not arguing though that because something was said in Shakespeare's time, it fits in a press release written/presented in the last few years? There's a fairly standard business English, people expect to hear it, and unless you can signal that you're using "aks" or e.g. making up your own spelling as a hat-tip to Shakespeare, people are going to assume you don't proofread your press releases and wonder what else you don't check

[Trickydecision]

I agree with MonstrousP about "I was sat" and "I was stood". Did someone just pick you up and plonk you there then?

"Aks" may be Shakespearean, but it is nearly as annoying as 'likkle" and "hospikle".

[squoosh]

English is badly missing a collective 'you'. My mother uses 'ye' a lot. She's old school.

[SunnyBaudelaire]

lol I do not think anyone uses 'aks' in written English do they?
I was just countering the way so many people complain about errors or americanisms when actually they might have been there a v long time...

[Homemadeapplepie]

"Was" instead of "were"- never heard it till I lived in Hull, it's pretty widespread there, I didn't notice it after a while.

[hellsbellsmelons]

Surely we have to do this then?

[usualsuspect333]

Pedant -a person who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.

I hate posters who claim to be pedants like it's a good thing.

[CoteDAzur]

Pedant: A person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.

You wouldn't hate it so much if you defined it properly.

Yes, people get annoyed with pedants but that is because they don't like being corrected, not because pedantry is an awful thing in itself.

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

I'd say a pedant is a stickler for correctness, without an accompanying sense of proportion. Does that seem fair?

I do think it's a negative term.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

I don't know anybody who talks like that.

[usualsuspect333]

Reads the same to me.


It's nothing to be proud of, either way.

If someone posts 'I'm a pedant' it reads 'Look at me being all clever' to me.

But then I'm probably one of those simpletons that is referred to up thread.

[JaWellNoFine]

It's funny (strange) that inaccuracies such as 'we was', 'I seen', 'he done', etc, are an English (i.e. said by people from England; the home of the English language) idiosyncrasy, and not heard in other English-speaking countries, like the U.S., Canada, Australia, NZ, etc.

I wonder why that is.

^
This

How does it go...
www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/myfairlady/whycanttheenglish.htm

[AuntyMag10]

Yanbu, it makes someone sound thick. The same goes with 'i am sat here' or similar.

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

I think it makes someone sound thick to say that, TBH.

[Eigg]

Historically speaking there is no more virtue in 'you were' than in 'you was'. Both were originally considered correct, standard forms of speech (both spoken and written) depending on where you were from geographically (not socially).

Samuel Johnson, who wrote the first English dictionary and grammar preferred the sound of 'you were' and chose that as the 'correct' version for his grammar.

However up until he made that (purely stylistic) decision either version was equally acceptable.

Of course 'you were' is now considered correct formal written English however 'you was' a perfectly acceptable in a number of dialects.

[Trickydecision]

Not as thick, though, JeanneDM, if you are aiming at AuntyM, as peppering one's conversation with "to be honest' , or one's writing with TBH. Why the need to repeatedly declare you are not lying?

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

Why on earth does 'TBH' make you look thick?

It's a habit of speech. Possibly an irritating one, but there we go.

In this case, the implication was that, while I might sometimes tell a tactful white lie about what makes someone look less than intelligent, in this case, I wasn't feeling that way inclined.

HTH.

(That's another irritating figure of speech.)

[Trickydecision]

It's a habit of speech. Possibly an irritating one, but there we go.

Exactly. It is similar to repeatedly sticking "like" into one's speech, and is particularly irritating when pronounced, as it usually is, "Tubbyonesswivwa".

IMHO anyway. And there's another.

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

Well, yes ... but I don't think that makes someone thick (quite ok if you do, I just think it's unusual).

I've clearly offended you by picking that poster up for her nasty comment, and I'm not entirely sure why. Did you think what she said was ok?

[Trickydecision]

I'm not offended, but your response to the poster's comment, which did not strike me as nasty as it was general not personal, seemed a bit childishly and unnecessarily tit-for-tat.

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

Oh, ok.

I really found her comment nasty, but I guess it's hard to read tone on the internet.

[usualsuspect333]

The thick comment was nasty though.

I suspect the poster intended it to be nasty.Why else would you post a comment like that?

[PurpleAlert]

I was supporting in a year two class the other day where the PPA cover was constantly saying you was and we was. Another little chestnut was "more hotter."
She presented them with a bit of modelled writing and it was full of spelling and grammatical errors. I was itching to get my red pen out.
Poor kids- they have no hope...

[derxa]

In a school I worked in, the English coordinator would put on a policeman's hat and do a surprise inspection of the children's writing in all classes. He looked for specific mistakes on the particular day. The children responded well to it.

[NorksWar]

Was/Were
Bought/Brought
Lose/Loose

I hate it when people get the above words confused, but I have to confess that I say "I was like..." several times a day. I wish I didn't but the words just come out before I can stop them