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There Were or There Was: Differences in Context and Use

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There Were or There Was: Differences in Context and Use

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The English language is full of rules and exceptions to those rules, but the use of “there was” and “there were” is relatively straightforward and consistent. As long as you have grasped the basics for the verb “to be,” and you understand plurals, you’ll be able to use these phrases correctly.

Both there were and there was are used in the past tense and follow the same rules that there is and there are follow in the present tense. Each are mostly used to introduce a description – there was describes a singular object in the past tense, and there were describes plural objects in the past tense.

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When deciding whether to use “was” or “were,” you need to know whether the thing you are describing is singular or plural. Here are a couple of examples for each of these phrases so you can get a sense of the difference:

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Let’s quickly recap what a plural is so that we know when to use “were” instead of “was.”

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Let’s quickly recap what a plural is so that we know when to use “were” instead of “was.”

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Simply put, a plural noun is a word that refers to more than one thing — person, place, animal, idea, etc. As soon as you speak about more than one of anything, then it is plural. There are many rules around using plurals, but, for our purposes, we’re just going to look at noun plurals.

Most plurals are simply the singular noun with an “s” added. “Dog” becomes “dogs,” “leg” becomes “legs,” and so on.

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However, English has many exceptions. Some plurals have “es” added afterward, and others have irregular plural forms, which you just have to learn. Some examples of the most common irregular plurals:

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If describing a singular object, you would use “there was,” and if describing plural objects, you would use “there were.” It’s essential to know whether the object is singular or plural because the verb and subject must agree.

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For example, you will say, “There was one person at the party” because you are referring to a singular person. You will say, “There were three people at the party” when referring to more than one person.

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This is a very common verb, and sometimes one of the most confusing too! It’s most commonly used to link one verb to another, such as “He was playing soccer,” but sometimes stands on its own, as is the case when it’s used in the “there was” or “there were” construction.

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A positive statement in English gives you a piece of information describing how something is. By definition, it is an objective and fact-based statement. Positive or affirmative statements using “there was” or “there were” follow the formula below:

There was a child playing in the backyard.

There were some children playing in the backyard.

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Negative statements are the opposite of positive statements. They’re still objective and fact-based, but they tell you something is not so. They either contain a negative word — not, no, no one, nobody, never, none — or a negative verb.

Negative statements using “there was” or “there were” follow the same formula as positive statements, but the verb needs to be conjugated in the negative

There + negative verb + complement

Example:

There wasn't anyone at the club.

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To formulate questions using “there was” and “there were,” you can follow the following formula:

Verb + there + complement?

Example:

Was there a car parked over there?