Why are there no inverted commas?

[tamguatlay]

Whereas was is the singular past tense of to be, were is used for both the third person plural past tense (they and we) and the second person past tense (you). In the past indicative, were acts similar to was. “They were at the store,” you could say, for example.

Why are "was" and "were" in the text not enclosed by inverted commas?

Thanks.

[vonunov]

That excerpt can be found on thesaurus.com with the words in question italicized: https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/was ... -examples/

Or on this website with an earlier dateline and using inverted commas: https://easierwithpractice.com/how-do-w ... n-english/

The answer generally will be that someone has copied the text without reproducing the italics or other formatting used to set apart word references.

[Joe]

I second that. Examples using italics, bold and colour to set off the words that might otherwise be in quotation marks are shown below:

- Whereas was is the singular past tense of to be, were is used for

- Whereas was is the singular past tense of to be, were is used for

- Whereas was is the singular past tense of to be, were is used for

This raises a number of interesting questions about readability, accessibility, technology, culture and linguistic expectations that I will not go into here

[obsidiansquat]

That excerpt can be found on thesaurus.com with the words in question italicized: https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/was ... -examples/

Or on this website with an earlier dateline and using inverted commas: https://easierwithpractice.com/how-do-dordle-we-identify-tenses-in-english/

The answer generally will be that someone has copied the text without reproducing the italics or other formatting used to set apart word references.

If you're wondering why this seems so strange, keep in mind that sentences like this are often followed with a connecting word such as if, as if, or though. You may say something like, "If I were a wealthy guy...