I was having a little debate on a grammar issue with someone.
The sentence is:
We wasn't going to, but Jordan was skipping all the way to the toy shop.
I said that it should be:
We weren't going to, but Jordan was skipping all the way to the toy shop.
The person saying it should be wasn't cited this for support:
"The use of were and weren't in the subordinate clauses depends on the reality or truthfulness of the subordinate clause. If it is true, then the indicative forms was and wasn't are in order. If it is not true i.e. counterfactual, then the past subjunctive forms were and weren't are used."
He said that since it was true the sentence would be correct with wasn't.
He also cited:
"The subjunctive mood is used to describe or speculate on a hypothetical situation, and you’ll hear people using both ‘”was” and “were” in this context. But only one of these is correct. Whenever we’re talking about something that isn’t a reality at the moment, we discard “was” and choose “were” instead. It doesn’t matter whether we are referring to a single person or a group of people. As soon as we cross the border between reality and speculation, “were” is the only word to choose. "
As far as I'm aware you can never use "was" with "we" in proper English.
I'd appreciate your opinions on what you think the correct sentence would be and why.
Thanks!
Best Answer
You're right: the verb be never takes the form was when the first-person plural pronoun we is the subject. Was is used only with the first-person pronoun I and with third-person singular subjects. (The preceding two sentences are true "in proper English", as you put it: the use of was with other kinds of subjects in dialects other than standard English isn't relevant to your question.) The answer to your specific question is that simple.
The complicated questions about when to use was vs. were deal with clauses where the subject is I or a third-person singular pronoun or noun phrase.