We're

How to spell we're

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce we're

What does we're mean?

1. pronounA contraction of 'we are', used to state what the speaker and at least one other person currently are or are doing.

We're in a sentence

• We're leaving for the airport in ten minutes.

• We're very grateful for all the help you gave us.

Where does we're come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of the two words 'we' and 'are', joined with an apostrophe that marks the missing letter 'a'. The pronoun 'we' descends from Old English 'we', a native Germanic word shared with Dutch 'wij' and German 'wir', all going back to a common ancestor meaning the group that includes the speaker. The verb 'are' comes from Old English 'earun' or 'aron', the plural present form of 'to be', reinforced in form by Old Norse during the Viking settlements. Contractions like this became common in written English from the 1600s onward, when printers and writers began using the apostrophe to show that a sound had been dropped in speech. The spelling trap is purely that apostrophe: drop it and you get 'were' (the past tense of 'be'), which is a completely different word.

How the word is built

• we (first person plural pronoun)
• 're (contracted form of 'are')

Words that sound like we're

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• weir: A low barrier or dam built across a river to control its flow or raise the water level.