where were we

phraseB2informal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

Where were we asks where a conversation had got to. Somebody interrupted, and now the thread must be found again.

It is asked after a phone call, a knock at the door or a long digression, and it is one of the few questions in English that nobody expects a precise answer to. The tense is worth noticing, since English uses the past for a conversation that is still going on. Now, where were we is the fuller form, and it is what a teacher says after settling a class down.

Definitions of where were we

1phrasewhere were weUsed to resume a conversation after an interruption.B2
“Right, where were we before the phone rang?”

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Small Talk & Everyday Phrases

First appears in chapter 29 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

← Vocabulary

where were we

phraseB2informal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

Where were we asks where a conversation had got to. Somebody interrupted, and now the thread must be found again.

Definitions of where were we

1phrasewhere were weUsed to resume a conversation after an interruption.B2
“Right, where were we before the phone rang?”

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Small Talk & Everyday Phrases

First appears in chapter 29 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word