---
title: Dialects follow rules: speakers of "we was" use "was" with every per… — Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Dialects follow rules: speakers of "we was" use "was" with every person, which is a regular pattern, not a random mistake. Who acts: Dialects, we, use. A sentence of the lesson «Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing» of the english course of Mova's primary school with 
---

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# Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing, sentence 10

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Dialects follow rules: speakers of "we was" use "was" with every person, which is a regular pattern, not a random mistake.

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**Who acts:** Dialects, we, use · **What happens:** follow, be · **To what, where:** rules, regular pattern

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing» of the english course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dialects, we, use), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:english:038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson:10
# text = Dialects follow rules: speakers of "we was" use "was" with every person, which is a regular pattern, not a random mistake.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = english
# lesson = 038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Dialects	dialect	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	follow	follow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=0:root|HaikuPos=VERB:VBZ:Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin
3	rules	rule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
5	speakers	speaker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	appos	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
11	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	regular	regular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	pattern	pattern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	random	random	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	parataxis	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | present | Dialects | rules |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | we |  |  |  |  | of use; with every person | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present | use | a regular pattern |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:english:038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson:10`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R8-pos-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

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