Were am i

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Our Living Language Although were am i irregular verbs in English once had different singular and plural forms in the past tense, only one still does today—be, which uses the form was with singular subjects and the form were with plural subjects, as well as with singular you.

Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms.

Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. Were is the plural form and the second person singular form of the past tense of be. They were only fifty miles from the coast. You were about twelve at the time. Were has a special use in conditional clauses when these clauses are used to mention situations that do not exist, or events that are unlikely to happen. When the subject of the clause is I, he, she, it, there, or a singular noun, were is sometimes used instead of ‘was’, especially in formal writing.

If I were in his circumstances, I would do the same. If the law were changed, it would not benefit women. In conversation and in less formal writing, people usually use was. If I was an architect, I’d re-design this house. If the business was properly run this wouldn’t happen.