Were

How to spell were

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce were

What does were mean?

1. verbThe past tense of 'be' used with 'you', 'we', 'they', or plural subjects.

Were in a sentence

• They were very kind to us.

• They were all surprised by the news.

Where does were come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'be', and it descends directly from Old English, where wǣron served as the plural past form and wǣre as the second-person singular. It grew from the Proto-Germanic root 'wesaną', meaning 'to be' or 'to remain', a relative of the Old Norse 'vera' and the German 'war'. English famously builds its verb 'to be' from several unrelated roots, a process called suppletion, which is why 'am', 'is', and 'were' look nothing alike. The 'w' opening and the unusual past forms are leftovers from that ancient w-root, which once meant 'to dwell' or 'to abide'. The same family also gave us the now-archaic 'wast' and 'wert', and helps explain why 'were' and the similar-sounding 'where' and 'wear' so easily trip writers up.

How the word is built

• were (past plural and second-person singular of the verb 'be', from Old English wǣron)