The United States was in debt vs The United States were in debt

The phrase 'the United States was in debt' is correct. When referring to a country as a singular entity, we use the singular form of the verb 'to be.' In this case, 'was' is the correct form to use. 'The United States were in debt' is incorrect because it uses the plural form of the verb, which is not appropriate when talking about a single country.

Last updated: March 19, 2024 • 424 views

The United States was in debt

This phrase is correct. When referring to a country as a singular entity, the singular form of the verb 'to be' should be used.

This phrase is used when talking about the financial situation of the United States as a single entity.

Examples:

The United States was in debt after the war.
In 1835, the United States was in debt for the first time.
During the recession, the United States was in debt.
The report showed that the United States was in debt.
By the end of the year, the United States was in debt.

Show examples from the web [+]

Apr 21, 2011 ... When Congress established its budget process in 1974, the United States was in debt by about a half-trillion dollars; it is now in debt over $14 ...
Anti-trust laws were avoided, and the United States was in debt from the first Great War. The Secretary of Treasury, Mellon, tremendously reduced taxes, which ...
Excluding financial derivatives that refer to interest rate and foreign exchange contracts, the United States was in debt in the amount −$3.628 trillion (cell I24).
Jul 29, 2011 ... I asked Maceo if he realized that the United States was in debt, and that Obama, Boehner, and Congress were trying to decide whether to ...

The United States were in debt

This phrase is incorrect. When referring to a country as a singular entity, the singular form of the verb 'to be' should be used.

Show examples from the web [+]

The United States were in debt to the world; how they met those obligations was an important test of the new states, one which Massachusetts was determined ...
Apr 27, 2011 ... Published: July 27, 2011. “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.” – Alexander Hamilton. With Congress at a ...
Sep 30, 2008 ... 221 years ago, a time when many people in the United States were in debt and states were printing worthless money, the new nation was in ...

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers love us! We have an average rating of 4.79 stars based on 283,125 votes.
Also check out our 2,100+ reviews on TrustPilot (4.9).

"Thank you!"
Sachi Nakama July 2024
"I have literally been through chat, PI, claude, bard and bing and I got conflicting answers! Thank you! Human intelligence reigns!"
Retha July 2024
"Faster than AI"
CYNTHIA December 2023
"This was very helpful and I personally think this site is the best."
Kaden October 2023
"It was extremely thorough and very helpful!"
imperialelisa October 2023
"7 years without any disappointment. Always 100% satisfied. You guys are the best in the world at what you do. Thank you so much :)"
Zubair Alam October 2023
"In a world of text messages and online communication, this is great to have as a live tool. Thank you."
Selena October 2023
"Without textranch I would be stuck!"
宏祐 October 2023
"Accuracy and fast response. Personal comments from editor. Thank you."
Clh September 2023
"I wasn't aware of this service, it's fascinating and more reliable than standard IA tools available on the internet"
Arturo September 2023
"The fact that you can get reliable fast feedback on your texts."
Vinicius Antonio August 2023
"you guys are better than grammarly i'm being honest here"
ordinary July 2023
"OMG! This is really good than any other text correction tools I've used so far. Highly recommend this."
Vehan July 2023
"Very fast and accurate. thank you."
mojtaba July 2023
"I love this app because it's help to writing skills all of students ♥️"
Tarisini July 2023
"This was exactly the mistake I was looking for, the wording dind´t sound right at first. Better than grammarly!"
Ente July 2023
"The immediate help that I received was reassuring and very satisfactory. Thanks."
priiiyanshuu July 2023
"this helps A LOT for my studies."
kathnunez02 June 2023
"Woow!! I would never have expected such precision! Thank you soooo much!!"
Berta June 2023
"Real Time Editor and not AI. Many Thanks."
Priya June 2023
"The very first thing excites me about Textranch is how much your editors care."
sepideh June 2023
"The fact that texts are checked by human editors rather than by AI, etc. I appreciate this!"
Анна June 2023
"Feel welcome, immediate response, high quality feedback"
martin.roy June 2023
"This is the best app that I have ever seen"
Burulai May 2023

The United States was in debt vs The United States were in debt