Learn English – “I was” versus “Was I” in a question

syntactic-analysis

Which one is correct?

I was the person she'd always been waiting for?

or

Was I the person she'd always been waiting for?

I'm not sure why, but both seem weird to me, unlike:

Am I the person she'd always been waiting for?

Best Answer

Technically speaking, yes/no questions must begin with a modal or auxiliary verb followed by a subject, e.g. Am I right?; Does it work?; Should we begin?; Will they leave tomorrow?; etc.. Other questions, (wh- questions) follow more or less the same form but simply place the wh- question word before the modal/auxiliary, e.g. Why am I right? How does it work? Where should we begin? When will they leave tomorrow? Was I the person she'd waited for? etc..

We can also ask questions as if they are statements which do not follow this form. They are normally only used as an echo of uncertainty and the voice nearly always rises in pitch at the end, e.g. Person A says: There were 100 people to choose from and she chose you. Person B says: Really? She chose me? The question as statement beckons a confirmation, because it almost seems impossible. The proper form would be: Did she choose me? But it doesn't fir the situation.

So, to answer your question, both are correct but it depends on what came before this question.

Don't forget there are also indirect questions, but that's another story.

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