wert

Biblical "you existed"

Wert is an archaic second-person singular past tense of "be," used with "thou": Thou wert my friend.

It appears in the King James Bible, Shakespeare, and other Early Modern English texts.

Modern readers encounter it mainly in historical literature, hymns, and deliberately archaic speech.

archaic

thou

Archaic second-person pronoun

theeSecond-person object, antiquated
thyOld possessive pronoun
thineYours, archaically

hast · hath · doth · shalt · wouldst · couldst · shouldst · ere · hence · wherefore

conjugation

be

Have actual existence

wasHad being once
beingExisting as something
beenPast participle of "be"

am · is · are · past · subjunctive · second person · singular · indicative · verb · auxiliary

literary

Shakespeare

Elizabethan dramatist and poet

poetryMetrical literary composition
sonnetsFourteen-line rhymed poems
scriptureSacred religious writings

psalm · hymn · verse · prose · Elizabethan · Renaissance · medieval · classical · antiquated · formal

Categories

Archaismsthee, thou, thy, thine, ye
archaic Englishthou, thee, thy, thine, ye
archaic verbsdost, doth, hast, hath, shalt
Shakespearean Englishthou, thee, thy, thine, ye

Opposites

temporal register

wertwere

Plural past existence verb

are · was · is · am · colloquial speech

existential state

Past negative of be

Phrases

there werePast presence indicated
you were rightAdmission of another's accuracy
if I were youHypothetical role-swap preamble
where were you
mistakes were madeBlame-free confession of error
as you wereCommand to resume

Family

Familiarity: Top 1,000,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G