I thought you are/were

[Nightmare85]

Hello,
If we don't talk about past, what should be use?
I thought you are a teacher.
I thought you were a teacher.

Were seems better to me, but some guys could think I'm talking about past.
I thought you were a teacher some years ago.
However, as already said I'm talking about Present

Cheers!

 

[kfredson]

Hello,
If we don't talk about past, what should be use?
I thought you are a teacher.
I thought you were a teacher.

Were seems better to me, but some guys could think I'm talking about past.
I thought you were a teacher some years ago.
However, as already said I'm talking about Present

Cheers!

You can't say, I thought you are a teacher.
You can say, I thought you were a teacher.

This can either refer to the present or the past. The real question is, just what do you intend by this question? If you are referring to the present the possibilities are thus:

It may be that you are saying:
Oh, I THOUGHT you were a teacher. That is, I am right after all; you ARE a teacher.

Or it may be that you are saying:
Gee, I thought were a teacher but you evidently aren't.

Context is everything here.

 

[sarat_106]

Were seems better to me, but some guys could think I'm talking about past.
I thought you were a teacher some years ago.
However, as already said I'm talking about Present

Cheers!

When the verb in the independent clause is the past tense (thought), the verb in the dependent clause is usually in a past tense . It is the grammatical rule and the verb in dependent clause should accurately reflect the temporal relationship of the two clauses.

Here the verb in the dependant clause is ‘were’, the past form of verb ‘be’. It is used as a full verb to indicate existence but not action which is cause of dilemma. However, in practice, ‘You were a teacher” reflects a temporary existence which of course, refers to past and extends to present till the time speaking, without the use of any time expression. The moment you use a past time expression (some years ago)it simply refers to the past.