This topic is not related to whether we were together, whether we were at a friend’s house or whether we were married thirty years. This topic will help you to know and understand when you should use the letter V and the letter B, for example, if I were to ask you, how do you write: we were or we were? Perhaps you are smart enough and you would answer, it is written with a V! but could you explain to me why? If you have never asked yourself this question or if you do not know, I will explain it to you below. Pay close attention and you might learn something new.
Which is the correct one, we were or we were.
Incredibly we have become accustomed to technology since it almost always makes our work easier. What if we went back to the stone age and had to go back to using only our brains to live? Do you think we could? One of the fundamental things for reading is a good spelling. There are endless words of which we doubt, we do not know if they will be well written or not. I will show you one that perhaps you have tried to write and you don’t know what the correct form is, or how to write it at the moment. How do you think I should write it? “we were or we were”, the correct thing is WE WERE. Spelling is the study of rules that govern writing.
How to recognize it and when to use it?
First we can say that it is a word referring to the verb to be, it is used in sentences where there are no subjects that demonstrate the explicit existence of something or someone. For example: “we were together in the park”. If it were a sentence with an explicit subject, it would be: “my child and I were together in the park”, appearing as the subject “my child and I”.
We are talking about a word in the plural, referring to several people, without specifying how many, here we can see “we” as a hidden or omitted subject.
The letter V and B are the ones that present the most problems when writing a word and this is because they are letters called “betacism”, we can see this a lot in Romance languages since when pronouncing words with these letters they sound practically equal. This is really because, in ancient Latin, the letter B and V had different sounds, B had a sound that we could pronounce between our lips and teeth, which was easy to recognize. For the V there was no sound that was exactly labial, when we pronounce the V our lips do not stick together, do not touch. We must say that the letter B is used in 0.92% more compared to V, which is used in 0.39% in Spanish.
V and B in Phonetics.
In phonetics, sounds and voice are studied. With it we can discover if the sounds we emit are made by the throat, nose, joints such as lips, tongue or vocal cords. We can say then that they differ in something and it is in the way of pronunciation.
The letter V is used in cases where:
- We begin a word that when pronouncing it our lips do not come together, example: verb, cow, villa.
- When it is started especially with the vowel e (avoid, evaporate and evaluate).
- When it ends with: viro, vira, voro, vora.
- After ol and bnd and after para, pre, pri, pro.
The letter B is used in cases where:
- When pronouncing a word our lips come together, I invite you to pronounce the word “good”, “well-being”, “mouth”. Started with bi or bis.
- When they end in aba, abas, aban, bilidad, ble, ab, abs, ob, obs and ol.
- Also before lyr and after: cu, ha, he, hi, ho and hu.
This is the same case of how you write “I was or I was”.
As we speak we write.
The spelling we use is Spanish, the first rules were established by the Spanish academy in 1727. Do not think that this conflict of B and V is only with these letters, we can find this same conflict in s, c, z – g, j – ll. This is because the pronunciation force is almost the same and for this reason one must learn not only to write, but also to speak. Remember that as we speak we write, if we do not have a good diction it will be impossible for us to have a good spelling .
Remember so that they are not mistaken, WE WERE is written with V because when pronouncing it our lips do not come together and it also begins with the vowel E.
What to do to improve our spelling?
There are many exercises that can be done in order to improve and perfect spelling. Trainings that are necessary not only for young students but also for the most veteran. Due to the new technologies and the comforts that your proofreaders offer us, on many occasions we trust their tasks and we don’t even review what we write. Sending documents or messages with misspellings that leave much to be desired.
Study the spelling rules, it may seem like a tiresome task, but it is necessary, do exercises with each one of them. Once you have sample words, repeat them a number of times, write sentences with them, look up their meaning. Know the exceptions well, because these can be traps that cost you in an exam or that simply leave you in a bad light with colleagues.
With all this I have wanted to teach you and not only teach but also demonstrate why I am correct and I have no spelling mistakes when writing the word “WE WERE”. It is correct and it is written with a V. I want you to learn this from today, today we were learning something together, improve spelling and find out why.