# Where and were **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154 "2003-11-14T01:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/1 "2003-11-14T01:47:03Z")
Recently, I’m often finding these words substituted for each other. It seems to work both ways: “That was were we found him.” “We where planning to go to the mall.” Is it my imagination, or is this becoming common? Any known reason for it? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/2 "2003-11-14T01:51:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Xema \* > \*\*Recently, I’m often finding these words substituted for each other. It seems to work both ways: > “That was were we found him.” > “We where planning to go to the mall.” > > Is it my imagination, or is this becoming common? Any known reason for it? \*\* My first hypothesis would be massive failure of the U.S. educational system. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/3 "2003-11-14T02:51:57Z")
It seems that the visual, SMSing generation just doesn’t care about spelling. You’ll see the same confusion between their/there, horde/hoard, border/boarder, lose/loose, etc etc. It’s like that UL going around about the “fact” taht lettre odrer doestn mttaer ni wrods, s yr barin wll maek sens f thm neway. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/4 "2003-11-14T12:20:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndrewT \* > It seems that the visual, SMSing generation just doesn’t care about spelling. You’ll see the same confusion between their/there, horde/hoard, border/boarder, lose/loose, etc etc. I think you may be right. Yet in contrast to the examples you cite (except the final one), “where” and “were” don’t sound alike. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/5 "2003-11-14T14:23:15Z")
Don’t forget phase/faze. That one grates on me every time I see it. \ ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/6 "2003-11-14T14:38:47Z")
**Xema** : were the examples you gave ones you encountered in print, or were these things you heard said? If the latter, I expect that these might simply be instances of slurred, imprecise speech. Similarly, I know a fair number of people who invariably say “could of” when they actually mean “could have”. It may even be that the people you heard were not actually saying “where” \*or \* “were”, but were instead making some intermediary sound which resembles both. In much the same way, in **The American Language** H. L. Mencken said that, contrary to common belief, many New Yorkers do not substitute the substitute the sounds “ir” and “oi”, as when people trying to imitate a Brooklyn accent say “he choiped like a boid” or “toimurl” instead of “turmoil”. Rather, he said, if one listens closely, it can be discerned that they are, in fact, making a third sound which is similar to both. So too people trying to imitate a St. Louis accent will say “farty” for “forty” and “harse” for “horse”, whereas natives who speak with a pronounced accent are usually (so near as I can make out) making a sound which is neither “ar” nor “or”, but similar to both. ---
**Author:** ![Barks\_dog\_food](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@Barks\_dog\_food](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barks_dog_food)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/7 "2003-11-14T14:45:28Z")
threw/through are the worst I can think of. I’ve seen it a few times on this board. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-and-were/213154/8 "2003-11-15T03:02:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slipster \* > were the examples you gave ones you encountered in print, or were these things you heard said? They where … excuse me, _were_ all in print, not in speech.