you was

[svetlana14]

Does the actor say (in the video recording at 0:25) you was pronouncing was in its weak form as /wəz/ so one could hear that as if you and was are pronounced just as a one word?

 

[5jj]

The link does not work for me.

 

[svetlana14]

The link does not work for me.

Sorry - now it should work.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes. The auxiliary 'was' is nearly always pronounced in its weak form like that.

 

[probus]

Only when I come in and you were speaking and I heard you up there it was huge, it was like a force ...

Does that cover the part that you were asking about?

 

[jutfrank]

Only when I come in and you were speaking and I heard you up there it was huge, it was like a force ...

Actually, he says you was there too. It's London dialect.

 

[svetlana14]

Actually, he says you was there too. It's London dialect.

Initially, I thought that the combination of you and was was youse in the sense that the actor addressed a group of women claiming that their actions and speeches are huge (great). Now I understand (and subtitles suggest the same) that the speaker says you was twice in that episode (as jufrank mentioned).

 

[jutfrank]

In some British dialects, speakers say yous as a second person plural form. Listen out for that.

 

[teechar]

I definitely hear "you were speaking".

 

[jutfrank]

I definitely hear "you were speaking".

He actually says "you was speaking", which sounds very similar to 'you were speaking' due to the initial /s/ of 'speaking'. Such a conjugation is a feature of the dialect in which he talks. You can hear it again clearly a second later in the next sentence: "you was ... huge".

 

[5jj]

I definitely hear "you were speaking".

I did on first listening, but later utterances of 'you was' made me change my mind.