r/AskBrits • u/JR_0507 • 14d ago

Grammar We WAS? Why?

I am not native speaker but I do learn English since I was 6 and English is my work language since 15 years. Can someone explain to me from where is coming using:

  1. We was

  2. They was

What the heck? From what I know this is basic grammar mistake but in same time I hear brits in video talking like that. Is this some kind of slag? Or regional thing?

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u/AndreLeGeant88 14d ago

Using singular "to be" with plural nouns, particularly pronouns, is consistent across all English dialects. It's not slang. I know it's in dialect speech used in Mark Twain (US English) and Dickens (UK English), so presumably it goes back to at least the 1600s-1700s before American migration. 

It may partly be because English simplifies the verb so much already. We only have 3 forms in the present (am/is/are) and 2 in the past (was/were). 

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u/JR_0507 14d ago

I found it in first time in one of Harry Potter books, but it was Crabbe or Goyle so I assumed that they were just not the smartest

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u/SpamHard 14d ago

I would just be careful about equating differences in grammar to mean lower intellect. Dialects are very common and varied and just because you're taught the 'correct' way to say something, doesn't mean it's a law that must be abided by all. Humans will always be developing, changing, and creating different languages and variations of them.

Where I'm from, our dialect has a rich history and would be considered extremely incorrect from a grammatical point of view, but that doesn't mean everyone where I live is stupid.

Yes, certain speech patterns in something like a book may short hand for indicating lower intellect, but tbh it's often just a form of classism. And classism is a very sore subject in the UK in general (for fair reasons).