Have seen several cases of where instead of were. Could it be accent related? I doubt if it's autocorrect.

[WandyAgain]

I can't think of a pronunciation which would explain people choosing to type where instead of were.

Just seems very illogical to me (this bothers me; I'm ND) and would love a rational explanation.

Has anyone else noticed?

Hmm. Thought I'd added examples.

Try again.

I used to work with someone who always spelt 'were' as 'where'. Every single time. They must have genuinely believed it to be the correct spelling. They had a fairly responsible job in a profession.

It jumps out at me as wrong, like seeing brought when someone buys something.

It's just a typo. They are both very common words, so we are very heavily programmed by habit when we type them. Since they are so extremely similarly spelled, it is completely natural that each habit risks bumping into the other.

Pedant's Corner is odd these days, It's as if some posters are approaching the rapid informality of online written conversation as if we were all writing in the same relatively slow and mindful way that we did in the more formal contexts that writing was restricted to in the past.

‘Were’ and ‘where’ could sound similar in a scouse accent I think? I think it’s more likely to be a spelling mistake though. It’s a relatively common one at primary school!

@Gunpowder They might depending on what sort of scouse accent.
Not in mine. I slightly sound the h in where.

I don't think you should be posting other posters mistakes on this thread.It's a bit mean.

I've just sat and had a conversation with my dog. I'm Scottish but hadn't lived her for 25yrs due to my job and had to learn to slow down my speach. I think I, with a diluted accent don't pronounce the H but definitely know the difference.

@MyThreeWords , some typos are funny, and some are worryingly common.

Generally speaking, I’ve noticed that there are some words where people like to throw in an unnecessary ‘h’. There’s probably an overlap with wary/weary people too.

It isn't accent related, it's spelling related.

It might not be in your local accent, @CombatBarbie , but if you think of someone called Whyte, do you say it as Wight?

@Greenpeanutsnail , did you mean haitch?

@user98732 , I don't think it's accent either. The bare/bear and there//their/they're misspellings suggest that people either don't know or don't care.

Mixing up where, were and we're is as common as there, their and they're.

Perhaps a lot of people just don't care whether they get it right or not.

you could get asked “where’s Ware?” round here lol

Have you read this post through properly@CombatBarbie? !!!!

To Ware?

In Liverpool, all of the following are spelled we're: we're, were, where, wear

@duckydoo234 , not in Knowsley.
(I know it's not actually Liverpool.)

I often find myself typing things wrong these days that I know are incorrect grammatically, and have known since I was six years old, and I don't always spot it afterwards. Then eventually I do and can't believe I wrote it. A slip between brain and screen.