The spelling of the word "were par" may seem confusing at first, but it actually follows the rules of English phonetics. In IPA phonetic transcription, the word is written as /wər pɑːr/. The first syllable, "were," is pronounced with a schwa sound, and the second syllable, "par," uses the long "a" sound. The word "were" is the past tense of "to be," and "par" is a French loanword meaning "standard" or "average." Together, "were par" means "were average" or "were typical."