Was and were: how to use?

Wasand were are the inflections of the verb to be in the past.

the bending was is used with the pronouns I (me), he (he), she (Is it over there),it (used to refer to people, animals, places and/or objects).

bending were is used with the pronouns you (you), we (we), you (you) and they (they).

Unlike what happens with most verbs, to form the past tense of the verb to be, we do not apply the rule of adding -ed.

This happens because the verb to be it's an irregular verb, that is, its inflection is completely different from its original form in the infinitive.

As with the verb to be in the present tense, the meaning of these verb forms is related to the verbs “to be” and “to be”. What will indicate the meaning of each use will be the context of the sentence.

Examples

See the examples below:

• eliana is my dentist. (Eliana é my dentist.) - Verb to be in the present; meaning: "to be".
• eliana was my dentist. (Eliana was my dentist.) - Verb to be in the past; meaning: "to be".
• the girls are at the museum. (The girls they are in the museum.) - Verb to be in the present; meaning: "to be".
• the girls were at the museum. (The girls They were in the museum) - Verb to be in the past; meaning: "to be".

Unlike the conjugation of the verbs “ser” and “estar” in Portuguese, the conjugation in English has only these two forms: was and were.

See the table below to know the inflections of the verb to be at the Simple Past Tense:

SIMPLE PAST TENSE
AFFIRMATIVE	NEGATIVE	INTERROGATIVE
I was	I was not	I wasn't	Was I???
you were	you were not	you weren't	Were you???
he was	he was not	he wasn't	Was he???
she she was	she she was not	she she wasn't	Was she???
it was	it was not	It wasn't	Was it???
we were	we were not	we weren't	Were we???
you were	you were not	you weren't	Were you???
they were	they were not	they weren't	Were they???

Check out some examples in affirmative, negative and interrogative forms:

Affirmative form

As in the Portuguese language, the sentence structure affirmative in english follow the order subject + verb:

• They are at school. (They're at school) >They were at school. (They were at school)
• I am late. (I'm late) >I was late. (I was late)
• He is my teacher. (He is my teacher) >he was my teacher. (He was my teacher)

Negative form

To form the negative, just add not after the verb:

• They are not at school. (They're not in school.) >They weren't at school. (They weren't at school)
• I am not late. (I'm not late.) >I was not late. (I wasn't late)
• He is not my teacher. (He is not my teacher.) >he was not my teacher. (He wasn't my teacher)

Contracted form

The negative form can also be expressed through the contracted form, where the verbal inflection was/were is joined to the adverb of negation not. Let's see how the examples mentioned above would look in contracted form:

• they were not at school. (They weren't at school) > They weren't at school. (They weren't at school)
• I was not late. (I wasn't late) >I wasn't late. (I wasn't late)
• he was not my teacher. (He wasn't my teacher) >he wasn't my teacher. (He wasn't my teacher)

Interrogative form

For form building interrogative, the verbal inflection was/were must be positioned before the subject:

• Is she at school? (She is in the school) >Was she at school? (Was she at school?)
• Am I barking? (I'm late?) >Was I late? (I was late?)
• Is he your teacher? (He is your teacher?) >Was he your teacher? (Was he your teacher?)

attention

If the sentence refers to a conditional situation that can no longer happen, that is, an unrealistic assumption, exceptionally we will use inflection were with all the pronouns.

Note, for example, a phrase from the song If I were a boy, by Beyoncé:

If I were a boy/ I think I could understand/ How it feels to love a girl/ I swear I'd be a better man. (If I were a boy, I think I could understand / what it's like to love a girl / I swear I would be a better man)

• Conditional situation (necessary condition for another situation to happen): If I were the boy (if I was a boy).
• What would happen if the conditional situation became reality? Whoever wrote the sentence thinks he could understand what it's like to love a girl and swears he'd be a better man.
• Is it possible for the conditional situation to come true? Do not. We have a conditional situation that will not happen, that is, an unrealistic assumption (Whoever wrote the sentence will not become a boy). For this reason, instead of the usual use of I was, we will use I were.

Complement your studies with the texts below.

• irregular verbs in english
• there is there are
• The 10 most used conjunctions in English
• Simple Past: exercises with commented feedback (easy level)

Exercises

Now that you've learned conjugation, how about practicing a little?

Fill in the blanks below with the correct form of the verb to be at the Simple Past Tense:

1. (PUC-1997) A long time ago London __________ an important city, but it __________ different from London today. There __________ not very many big buildings. There __________ a lot of small boats on the river.

a) is, is, are, are
b) was, is, are, are
c) was, was, were, were
d) was, is, were, were,
e) had been, is, were, are

See Answer

Alternative c) was, was, were, were

2. Sara _________ at school when John arrived, but she _____________ in the classroom yet. She _____________ at the library studying for the test.

a) was, wasn't, were
b) was, wasn't, was
c) was, was, were
d) wasn't, was, were
e) weren't, were, were

See Answer

Alternative b) was, wasn't, was

3. "Where ____________ the children? I thought they____________ at home waiting for their mother, but they_____________ there."

"Phillip said they _____________ at their nightbor's.

a) was, wasn't, were, were
b) wasn't, was, was, were
c) was, was, were, were
d) were, were, weren't, were
e) were, weren't, were, were

See Answer

Alternative d) were, were, weren't, were