Was or Were?

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Diego Simão

#458159 Sat, 29 Dec 07 01:44 PM

There is a sentence in My extracurricular English book:

It were Mike and Madeleine that went into the room.

I think it should be "were".

The whole is :

It was Mike and Madeleine that went into the room.

I wonder if it should be were or was, thank you for telling me the language points about it.

Diego Simão

Joined on Fri, Dec 22 2006

China

New Member (51)

Sois tout que tu veux devenir!

Kooyeen

#458164 Sat, 29 Dec 07 02:00 PM

Hi,
I think it's definitley "was". The other, "were", doesn't make sense there. There are no conditionals, so it's just a past tense. And it agrees with "it" because that's the way "it's/it was" is used idiomatically:

It's John who decided to go.
It's my parents who decided to go.
It was Jenny who told me.
It was her friends who told me.

Notice that the verb remains singular even if what follows is in the plural. When someone knocks at the door... Who is it? It's her, Jenny... It's them, our friends...

Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (3,973)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

Verbs, Plurals, Tenses, Past tenses, Conditionals

Yoong Liat

#458174 Sat, 29 Dec 07 02:34 PM

Diego Simão wrote:

There is a sentence in My extracurricular English book:

It were Mike and Madeleine that went into the room.

I think it should be "were".