When do you use 'were' instead of 'where'?

Answer 1

Where:
adv.

1. At or in what place: Where is the telephone?
2. In what situation or position: Where would we be without your help?
3. From what place or source: Where did you get this idea?
4. To what place; toward what end: Where is this argument leading?

Were:
past tense of "be"

Answer 2

The word 'where' is used when describing at, in, or to what place. (definition from merriam-webster.com) some examples: Where are we going? Where is the car? Do you know where my brother is? The word 'were' is a helping verb, meaning it normally appears right before a verb. (not to be confused with we're, the contraction of we are) Again, some examples: We were going to the store. You wererunning in the hall. That's when we were watching television. Something else that might help you is thinking of 'were' as the past tense of 'are'. We are going to the store You are running in the hall That's when we arewatching television. Subsituting 'are' for 'were' changes the sentence from doing it in the past to doing it presently. ______________

Here is a basic response. There are other uses of the words. Were is part of the verb to be or it is a helping verb. When 'were' is used, it probably will be as a verb or a helping verb. I might say "We are reading", meaning that the act of reading is happening right now. Or I might say "We were reading", meaning that at some time in the past, we engaged in the activity of reading.

"Where" often asks a question about location, or says something about a location, or about some state of being. Where are the keys? I want to go where we went 5 years ago; that was great! "I hate being in a situation where I am asked questions I cannot answer."

Maybe a quick way to keep them straight in most cases is to think that the word WHERE has the word HERE in it; here is a location. "I'm right here. Where are you?" If you want something that is like a verb or helping verb, use WERE.

Answer 3

Were is the past tense of are. You are, you were, you will be. Where is a location, not a verb. "Where is the ball?" "You were in the park." Notice that the "h" is the difference in the two words, but they are two very different words.

Answer 4

When discussing an event that took place in the past.

"There were some apples in the break room, but now they're all gone."

_____

Was is the simple past of to be in the singular (1st and 3rd person).

Examples

• I was late.
• He/she/it was at home.

Were is simply the plural form as in:

• We were late.
• You (plural and singular) were in London.
• They were at home.

Answer 5

The words was and were are both past tense forms of the verb to be. They are also used as helping verbs in the Past Progressive or Continuous tense (-ing verbs).

Basically, "was" is singular and "were" is plural.

Also, "was" is used with the pronouns I, he, she, and it.

Otherwise, "were" is used, for the pronouns you, we, and they.

Examples:

I was tired.

He was tired.

The boy was tired.

You were tired.

We were tired.

The boys were tired.

His mother was going to the store. - singular subject

His mother and her friend (they) were going to the store. - plural subject

Answer 6

They are two very different word types and have very different meanings.

"where" denotes location: "Where did I leave my books?"

"were" is the plural past tense of "to be": "The books were on the table."

Answer 7

Where were you when I tried to call you?

I asked them where you were, and they told me.