We're vs. Were - English Grammar Corner

Common Mix-Ups

It’s vs. Its You’re vs. Your Who’s vs. Whose Who vs. Whom To vs. Too vs. Two They’re vs. Their vs. There We’re vs. Were

We’re and were are homophones. They sound the same in speech, but they are spelt and used differently.

We’re = We Are

We’re is a contraction. It is always short form for we are.

Examples:

We’re going to be late.
= We are going to be late.

We’re thinking of moving.
= We are thinking of moving.

We’re going to need more coffee.
= We are going to need more coffee.

Were = Verb Form

Were is a form of the verb to be.

In everyday use, it most commonly appears as the past tense of are:

We were late.

The roads were chaotic this morning.

We were on a break! – Ross Geller [Friends, 1994]

Choosing Between We’re and Were

The quickest way to tell we’re and were apart is the substitution test.

– Replace the word with we are. If the sentence still makes sense, use we’re. If it doesn’t, use were.

For example:

We’re nearly there.

Replace we’re with we are:

We are nearly there.

Here, we are works, so we know we’re is correct.

✅ – We’re nearly there.
❌ – Were nearly there.

Now let’s see what happens when we are doesn’t work:

The tickets were all sold out by the time we got there.

Replace were with we are:

The tickets we are all sold out by the time we got there.

We are doesn’t fit here, which tells us were is the right choice.

✅ – The tickets were all sold out by the time we got there.
❌ – The tickets we’re all sold out by the time we got there.

Quick Practice – We’re vs. Were

Test yourself on we’re vs. were with our interactive practice tool:

We’re vs. Were

Click anywhere to begin

The full question list and answers are below.

Instructions: Fill in each blank with we’re or were.

____________ not ready yet.
The views ____________ breathtaking.
____________ so glad you could come.
The parks there ____________ beautiful.
____________ taking the scenic route.
Those ____________ the days!
____________ running on caffeine and optimism at this point.
Things ____________ going well, until we went on the jungle hike.
The flat pack instructions ____________ impossible to follow, as usual.
The rooms ____________ spotless and the staff ____________ brilliant.

Show Answers [Click]

We’re
were
We’re
were
We’re
were
We’re
were
were
were / were