[Grammar] You was

[say hello]

I had heart a sentence from a film named scarface.

"İf you have kept your mouth shut, they would think you was a horse"

Why not "you were a horse" Can you please tell me?

 

[tkacka15]

I'd use "were", but I remember some who argued that you may use "was" here which refers to the complement "horse" in the clause "...you was a horse".

 

[teechar]

I [STRIKE]had heart[/STRIKE] heard this sentence [STRIKE]from[/STRIKE] in a film named Scarface.

"İf you have kept your mouth shut, they would think you was a horse"

Why not "you were a horse" Can you please tell me?

Non-standard English is not uncommon in films.

 

[bhaisahab]

The whole sentence is ungrammatical. Not surprising, as the story is about non-native English speaking gangsters.

 

[say hello]

How can we make this sentence to be grammaticaly correct? What would you say?

 

[tkacka15]

"How can we make this sentence to be grammatically correct? What would you say?"

It should be used in the third conditional form: "İf you had kept your mouth shut, they would have thought you were a horse".

 

[Rover_KE]

Bradley Walsh, born near Watford and a resident native English speaker, a well-educated actor, comedian and game show presenter, regularly says 'you was' and 'was you?' in programmes like 'The Chase' on British TV.

It's just the dialect he always uses and we have to put up with it. He must know it's non-standard, but he doesn't care.

 

[emsr2d2]

That seems to be fairly standard usage from that part of the UK. I'm not entirely convinced that he knows it's non-standard.

 

[tkacka15]

Bradley Walsh, born near Watford and a resident native English speaker, a well-educated actor, comedian and game show presenter, regularly says 'you was' and 'was you?' in programmes like 'The Chase' on British TV.

It's just the dialect he always uses and we have to put up with it. He must know it's non-standard, but he doesn't care.

I've heard the same in Manchester (UK); instead of "We were" my interlocutors used "We was".

 

[Barb_D]

I can't think of anywhere in the US where it's a normal part of the dialect. (There are variations everywhere, of course - I just haven't heard this one.)
There is one woman I know who uses it exclusively. Just one. I sometimes wonder if her education was so appalling or if her family modeled it for some reason - perhaps being from an area in the UK where it was the norm.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I don't think you could call it 'the norm' anywhere in the UK. It's just that in some areas you might hear it more often than in others. It's non-standard everywhere.

 

[Skrej]

On a similar note, I've noticed some BrE dialects will use 'were' for 3rd person singular.

I noticed that several of the characters on the show Last Tango in Halifax, especially the character of Alan (played by Derek Jacobi), and some of his similarly aged buddies (the character is 70-something) say things like "Our Michael were a good lad".

The series is set in West Yorkshire, I believe.

Edit. It's almost as if these dialects were reversing "standard" usage of was/were -swapping out first person for 3rd person, etc. for the 'to be' verb.