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So what a great question! I have to say, it’s rare for a non-native speaker to notice this feature of spoken English, so you must have a very good ear for conversations! The feature that you’ve drawn attention to is called a ‘non-standard grammatical form’ and in the cases you’ve mentioned the speakers seem to combine two tenses into one new one.

So what’s going on here? I was sat waiting for an hour uses the simple past of be and the past participle of the second verb sit, and finally waiting is in the progressive verb form. This pattern, which almost looks like the passive voice, is used to introduce anecdotes and stories, almost as a kind of ‘scene-setting’ device. It also sometimes suggests that the person was forced to do something against their will, which is similar to the function of the passive. This phrase is likely to be used when we’re complaining about something:

I was stood waiting for the bus for half an hour in the freezing cold.

I was finished cleaning when the kids come in and messed the room up again.

Technically, in writing, this combination of verb forms would be incorrect, and if children wrote in this way at school, their teacher would correct the form of the second verb (as you’ve done in your examples) or cross out the be participle to change the verb to the simple past:

I sat waiting for an hour.

I stood in the rain.

The teacher corrects written English so that the child is aware of ‘conventional’ or ‘standard’ usage, which a child needs to become literate. Even as children, we’re able to modify our language depending on the formality of a situation and adult speakers who use a lot of non-standard grammatical forms are probably unlikely to do so in formal situations - for example, if they were asked to give a speech in public.

So, while a teacher might correct a child’s written English, I think we’re more tolerant of spoken variations, and these days, we use the term ‘non-standard’ to describe such features. I think it’s better than describing such variations as being wrong or incorrect, because these non-standard grammatical patterns are used consistently by millions of speakers every day! So, I really approve of your phrase ‘seemingly incorrect’, Cynthia, to describe this usage, because I think that sums it up perfectly!

And Cynthia, I just want to finish by mentioning that there are some regional variations in non-standard grammar. I thought I’d tell you about some features of non-standard grammar from the regional accent, Geordie, where I live. (In fact, rather than being an accent, it’s a dialect, but that’s another story!). OK…

• The first example I’m going to tell you about is I’ve went or She’s went or He’s went home, which is used instead of gone.
• Another example is the use of the simple present instead of the simple past - I says to my husband - which uses the third person singular form of the verb.
• There’s also a non-standard conditional form used: If I had’ve went meaning ‘If I had gone’ to express an unfulfilled condition.
• Another example is that the past tense of irregular verbs becomes inflected: I catched it; I telled him.
• And finally, double negatives are common: You didn’t want it, didn’t you not?

So, just before I go, or ‘gan’, you might be intrigued to learn that regional accents (although not dialects) have become very fashionable in broadcasting, but the announcers do read scripts written in standard English grammar! So good-bye and thank you for the question Cynthia!