Main Difference
“Where” and “Were” seems to be similar but are two different words. Spell as well the pronunciation of both words are different from each other. “Where” is a adverb pointing to a place or position of a person or a thing. “Were” is the plural past tense of “are”. “Were” is used for the singular and plural of second person.
Where
“Where” is a adverb of time pointing to a place or position of a person or a thing. ‘Where’ is included in one of the five question words i.e. who, when, what why and where. In most of the sentences, interrogative sign come at the end of sentence containing ‘where’. e.g. “Where is my bag?”. “Where are my shoes?”
Were
“Were” is the plural past tense of “are”. “Were” is used for the singular and plural of second person. It is the plural of “was”. ‘Was” is homologous to ‘is’ and ‘were’ is homologous to ‘are’. ‘Were’ is used with “You, We, They and plural nouns” e.g. “Children were playing in the ground”. “They were going to market for shopping”. “You were running”. “We were flying kites”.
Key Differences
- Where is adverb of time while ‘were’ is a verb.
- ‘Where’ is plural past word while “were is a word of question.
- In pronunciation of ‘were’ schwa sound is used while for ‘where’ long e is stressed with gentle h sound at the start.
- ‘Where’ needs a verb to express its meanings while ‘were’ is itself a verb.
- “Where were children playing?”. ‘Where’ is pointing towards the location while ‘were’ is used as verb.
- “Where were the students going? ‘Where’ is pointing towards the location while ‘were’ is used as verb.
- “Where were the books placed?” ‘Where’ is pointing towards the location while ‘were’ is used as verb.
- Interrogative sign comes at the end of sentences containing ‘where’ but interrogative sign may or may come at the end of sentence containing ‘were’ depending the position of ‘were’.