Was where

[krooton]

Watching my guilty tv pleasure of Don't Tell The Bride the other night, and they were revisiting some of the couples from this season.

I noticed a startling amount of people using "were" instead of "was" when referring to single things.

"It were the happiest day of my life."
"The church were beautiful."
etc

Everyone who did it happened to be from the midlands higher. Do they not teach that "were" refers to plurals, and "was" to a singular up there?

/First world problems

EDIT - Thread title typo fail!

 

[pingwing]

It's a werid northern thing, I don't get it and had to put up with NI's version of starting a sentance with "HERE!"...

Oh and Don't tell the Bride, gay!....

 

[Ahleckz]

Shock as poor people in the North don't know how to speak properly.

/troll.

It's a werid northern thing, I don't get it and had to put up with NI's version of starting a sentance with "HERE!"...

Don't even get me started on the tattymunchers saying "that'll learn you" instead of "that'll teach you". Drives me crazy!

 

[Edrof]

Definitely a Lancashire/Yorkshire dialectic idiosyncrasy. There must be mazillions of similar examples.

 

[Elixir]

And Glaswegians ending random sentences with but. Know what I mean but?

 

[HummuH1]

No. It's widely known that everyone from outside the M25 is a retard

And also:

Oh and Don't tell the Bride, gay!....

 

[Ahleckz]

And Glaswegians ending random sentences with but. Know what I mean but?

OH MY GOD. THAT DRIVES ME INSANE. My girlfriend does it all the time, and I call her up on it every single time. It's infuriating but.

 

[Elixir]

OH MY GOD. THAT DRIVES ME INSANE. My girlfriend does it all the time, and I call her up on it every single time. It's infuriating but.

Pure grinds ma gears but.

 

[builder22]

know

 

[Edrof]

OH MY GOD. THAT DRIVES ME INSANE. My girlfriend does it all the time, and I call her up on it every single time. It's infuriating but.

I've never heard that one before! She always talks proper with me .

 

[Threepwood]

The next couple safe this week is

IS!? IS!? Drives me crazy every week... it should be ARE.

 

[Wizzfizz]

It's funny the OP couldn't even get it right in the thread title.

 

[No-One]

Around here I've noticed people doing the opposite. Using was instead of were.

You was
We was
They was
Etc

 

[Elixir]

Someone at my work says 'done' instead of 'did'.

"Yeah I done that last week."

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[jas72]

IS!? IS!? Drives me crazy every week... it should be ARE.

couple is a singular work "a couple".

They are a couple.

I'm sure it should be is although I would probably say are myself.

Oh and the Scottish "pure dead brillant" slogan in Prestwick airport makes me cringe every time I see it....

Also who are the tattymunchers - that's a new name for me?

 

[Big Chris]

In Plymouth and the surrounding area they use to instead of from... a guy once asked me "Where'd you get your trainers too mate?" My housemate who was from Exeter would frequently ask "Where's Ben too?" when asking there whereabouts of our other housemate.

 

[Raikiri]

IS!? IS!? Drives me crazy every week... it should be ARE.

Technically 'couple' is being used in the singular, there is one couple. So 'is' is actually correct.

 

[Elixir]

Also who are the tattymunchers - that's a new name for me?

Irish people.

 

[Edrof]

IS!? IS!? Drives me crazy every week... it should be ARE.

'Couple' is a collective noun and so infers shades of both singular and plural. Context is usually the key. As with so many of these things, proper use probably varies depending upon your manual of style, how old you are or which country you're from.

 

[Cosimo]

No. It's widely known that everyone from outside the M25 is a retard

I thought everyone knew that.