‘We was’

[StripeyNighty]

Arghhh, is it just me noticing SO many people now saying/ typing ‘we was?!’

I’m on so many FB baby groups and I swear every person on there says ‘we was in the living room’ ‘we was scared’ etc. It absolutely drives me insane, why is is it so prevalent all of a sudden?

Maybe HQ can remove all posts where people can't used of/have correctly!

The man Brad from "The Chase" says was at the wrong time. It drives me mad. Why doesn't he realise that it's incorrect.

Don't get me started on Rolls or Breadcakes or Baps.

You forget teacakes! As a Lancastrian I was very puzzled when my Yoirkshire MIL asked if I would like a teacake with some ham on it! To me a teacake is sweeter and has currants, in Yorkshire it's what we called a barm cake!

Notmas bad as I should of.

All my in laws say "we was" and it drives me insane, luckily my husband doesn't. I really want to correct them (politely) but I realise that would just make me sound like a snob

“May you (do this thing)?” annoys me. A colleague who has form for incorrect use of “myself” has started using it.

It's definitely an English thing. I never hear it in Scotland (we have our own quirks though!).

I would only get irritated by these turns of phrase if they were used in, say, a formal letter or an essay. But on social media, in texts etc, I think it's perfectly ok to sound like you would when you're talking. I like it!

Yes, I can see how perfect speech would be a priority when you're on minimum wage.

Here, let me make it easy for you:
colloquialism
/kəˈləʊkwɪəlɪz(ə)m/
noun
a word or phrase that is not formal or literary and is used in ordinary or familiar conversation.
"the colloquialisms of the streets"
the use of colloquialisms.
"speech allows for colloquialism and slang"

it is colloquial language - you saying it makes people sound stupid says more about you than anything. Glad I’m not your friend!

What's that got to do with how much they earn?
TAs provide educational support for the children, of course they should be speaking and writing properly.

Now that's getting picky - if only grammar were explained? Use of the subjunctive is rare these days.

I'd prefer they remove all the scores of posts pointing it out. At least there's a chance that the person erroneously using 'of' is doing so as part of a wider offer to the discussion. The people who post with nothing more original to say than 'Should HAVE' are not. Its very annoying to have an alert, and return hoping for something interesting, only to see just another tedious SPAG correction.

It’s not uneducated, it’s colloquialism.

How many times do you hear people say things like ’I was watched’ or ‘I am played’

Never.

To me they have slightly different meanings. I was sat means you were getting until something (usually bad) happens whilst I was sitting with nothing.happening .

No. "I was sitting" is correct and "I was sat" is wrong.

I was sat implies that it was done to you, so someone else put/sat you there.

I also think these incorrect grammatical uses sound uneducated.

Agree with a PP - I was surprised when I first heard Lord Sugar say it, but realise it's perhaps more a Southern* thing?

*Not all of the South, obviously. I'm just not sure which part of the South 🧐

Ah, that's the issue, isn't it? One person's 'ordinary correct grammar' is another person's 'picky'.

It seems to me the only fair option is to appreciate differences, try to understand how language works, and try not to judge people for the way they speak.

I don’t get why it would make you sound like a snob, and even if it does, who cares? (I don’t specifically mean you btw, just people in general)

We can’t be 100% ‘nice’ all the time. It seems society now is all about stroking people’s egos and/ or pandering to them, heaven forbid someone should say something slightly negative to someone else.

This constant need to never hurt anyone’s feelings that seems prevalent in society now isn’t doing anyone any favours, particularly the younger generation who are all speaking like this because they think it’s normal…because no one will pull them up on it.

If you watch Love Island, there’s contestants on there from all around the U.K, they ALL say ‘we was’ and similar.

Anyway, glad I’m not the only person that it bothers, if it makes me a snob so be it.

I've just noticed the two people I use Teams chat with ALL day for work both use "we was".

I must have blocked it out before now so thanks very much for highlighting for me! It's very hard not to correct them now!

One of them also uses "could of" which makes me want to scream.

@ItsShiela I think that a high intolerance for 'mistakes' is missing a piece of the picture. I'm not a massive follower of Noam Chomsky but he does explain how language works and people absorb what they hear. That's not uneducated. It's random. It's what they heard. If people say what they heard, that is that part of their brain working .

Language works that way. It's why French toddlers can speak French at 22 months old when I've been working on my French for 4 decades !

'We was' and 'should of' instead of should have both bother me more than they should!

Alan Sugar grew up in Hackney and left school at 16 so why would you expect him to have perfect grammar?

Those are not examples of colloquial language.
@Annoyingwurringnoise 's example of Black Country dialect would be, but them instead of those, borrow instead of lend, I done - are not.
Colloquialisms tend to be regional.

You are missing that these people speaking like that genuinely don't know it's wrong.