Use was and did. The verbs were, were. Use of verbs was, were

Common English verb to be is one of the irregular verbs and its conjugation and application differs from the conjugation of regular verbs. In tense, the verb to be has two forms: was and were (hence the notorious “was were rule”). We will tell you which form to use where and when in this article. The basic rule to remember about the use of was and were: the form was is used with singular nouns, and the form were will be used with plural nouns.

Form was

Verb to be in tense Past Simple, as a rule, will have the form was with the pronouns I, it, he and she i.e. with singular pronouns. The verb was is used only when there are no other verbs in the sentence, otherwise the auxiliary verb did will be written.

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Irregular English verbs: table, rules and examples

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She was an happy child— She was a happy child.
She was prettier than me- She was more beautiful than me.
He was a terrible actor- He was a terrible actor.
He was a boy, she was a girl- He was a boy and she was a girl.
I was the ugliest man in a room- I was the most ugly person in the room.
I was made for loving you, baby“I was made to love you, baby.”
It was a perfect first date— It was an amazing first date.
It was a very good year— It was a very good year.

Shape were

The verb to be in the Past Simple will usually have the form were with the pronouns you, we, they i.e. with plural pronouns. The verb were is used only when there are no other verbs in the sentence, otherwise it will be written did.

You were so right to say that“You were so right to say that.”
You were meant for me- T was meant for me.
They were so tired after school— They were so tired after school.
They were all dead“They were all dead.”
We were best friends - We were best friends.
We were reading the whole evening- We read all evening.

Exceptions

There are exceptions to any rule, and the use of the verbs was/were was not without them. We have highlighted for you some of the most common exceptions:

1. In the stable construction If I were, the singular pronoun I and the verb were will be used.

   If I were her, I would like this dog- If I were her, I would like this dog.
   If I were here I would dance a pasodoble- If I were here, I would dance the paso doble.

2. In sentences with the construction I wish (when the fulfillment of a wish is unattainable), the phrase I were will be written.

   I wish I were Batman- It's a pity that I'm not Batman.
   I wish I were smart- It's a pity that I'm not smart.

Was/were in negative sentences

Get negative sentence with the verb was/were there are two ways: adding no to the sentence or adding a negative particle not, after which you will need to add an auxiliary word (any, much, etc.)

There was no gift for her“There was no gift for her.”
Were there boxes on the bureau?– Were there boxes on the bureau?

Was/were in interrogative sentences

To get an interrogative sentence with the verb was/were, you need to put the verb before the subject.

Was she a doctor?— Was she a doctor?
Was it breathtakingly?- It was exciting?
Were you honest with me?-Were you honest with me?
Were we fun?— Did we have fun?
Where was she yesterday?-Where was she yesterday?
Were they yelling?— Did they fight?

Video about the use of the verbs was and were:

The verb “to be” is one of the five hundred irregular verbs, therefore, when forming the past simple (Past Simple), the ending -ed is not added to it, as happens with regular verbs. This verb is radically transformed, being replaced by completely different sounding and spelling words: was and were.

So, the verb “to be” in the past simple tense has two forms: was (which is translated as was/was) and were (were). The first form is used with the pronouns I, He, She, It and nouns in singular, while the second one is with nouns in plural and pronouns We, You, They.

When using the pronoun you, remember that in English language it is plural and therefore always agrees with plural verbs!

Declension table for the verb “to be” in the past simple tense

Use of was, were in speech

These forms of the verb “to be” are used in the same meanings as the present tense forms am, is, are.

1. When specifying a person's name.

• His name was John. - His name was John.
• Their names were Jane and Frida. - Their names were Jane and Frieda.

2. When indicating age.

• Jim was 25 last year. — Jim turned 25 last year.
• My grand parents were 75 last month. — My grandparents turned 75 last month.

3. When indicating the location of a person or group of people.

• They were at the library last week. — They were in the library last week.

4. When describing a person or object.

• She was tall and slender. — She was tall and slender.

5. When listing a person’s qualities.

• He was stupid but kind. “He was stupid, but kind.”

6. In stable expressions.

• They were interested in Literature 3 years ago. — They were interested in literature 3 years ago.
• I was fond of music when I was student. — I was interested in music when I was a student.
• My brother was good at Physics when he studied at school. — My brother was a good physics student (= he was good at physics) when he was at school.

7. When describing the weather.

• It was warm and wet last winter. — Last winter it was warm and damp.
• It was hot and windy this summer. — This summer it was hot and windy.

There was/There were construction

In English, the verb “to be” is an integral part of the construction there is/there are, which in the past tense looks like this: there was/there were. It is not always easy to translate into Russian, but its meaning is that it denotes the location of something or someone (somewhere, something was or existed).

If the sentence is about a singular noun, then the construction there was is used. To denote plural nouns, the expression there were is used.

• There was a book on the table/There was a book on the table.
• There were many birds in the sky/There were many birds in the sky.

Sometimes this phrase is translated as an impersonal sentence.

• There was a terrible cry. (A terrible scream was heard).

Was/were as an auxiliary verb

There are cases when the verbs was/were in English lose their semantic meaning (to be) and perform the function of auxiliary verbs. For example, in the sentence I was watching this program at 7 o’clock yesterday / I watched this program yesterday at 7 o’clock, the verb was indicates that the narration is in the Past Continuous (past long time). This tense is formed using the auxiliary verb “to be” in the past tense and the present participle (Participle I).

The verbs was/were also participate in the formation of passive or passive voice (Passive Voice) in the past tense (Past Simple Passive). For education passive voice in the past tense the verb to be is required in the past tense + participle II, the third form of the verb.

Hello, friends. Many people make the mistake of not using auxiliary verbs AM, IS, ARE in the present tense when they are needed. In our lesson we will dwell in detail on am, is, are, and analyze situations when these three words must be inserted into a sentence. At the end of the lesson you can take a test and test yourself. As I already said, AM, IS, ARE are needed in the present tense. These three words are verb forms TO BE, which translates as “to be.” AM, IS, ARE can be translated as “there is,” but almost always in Russian these verbs are completely omitted from speech. This is where difficulties arise.

A little theory

As you probably know, in English we are required to use both a subject and a predicate in a sentence. In other words, in any sentence there is always an author of the action (who?) - this is the subject. And there is an action it produces (what does it do?) - this is the predicate. This is very important for understanding the English grammar system as a whole.

But now we will focus on the present tense.

In Russian, when an action is not specified, we understand that the situation takes place in the present tense.

For example: It's cold. Rain. I'm under an umbrella.

In each of these sentences there is no verb, no explicit action. But reading them, we understand that all this is happening in the present.

Now let's look at how an English-speaking person sees this situation:

[This state exists] cold. [This state exists] rainy. I [There is] under the umbrella.

“This state” - “it” is the subject. By the way, it is also called “formal subject”. Because it is needed solely for grammatical construction, and does not make any sense.
In the third sentence from our example, the subject is the word “I”, the author of the action.
As you might have guessed, the action that is present in each of the examples is the verb “is” - a variant of the verb “to be”, “to be in a state”.

Do you know that in the Old Russian language the word “is” was used, but it sounded like “is”? Remember one of catch phrases from the wonderful film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession,” when Tsar Ivan the Terrible says: “I am the Tsar, Ivan Vasilyevich.” “Az” is “I”, and “am” is “there is”. Over time, this form fell out of use.

Let's remember the rule:
Where in Russian there is no visible action, in English there is action.
Usually this applies to the present tense.
In Russian, we call action for past and future tense.

Example in past tense: Was Cold. Was rain. I was under the umbrella. Example in the future tense: Will Cold. Will rain. I will under the umbrella.

Here the action is expressed by the verb “was/was/was” in the past and “will/will be” in the future. You just need to add a formal subject to translate such a sentence into English.

Verb “to be” in the present tense has 3 forms in English tense: am / is / are. Please note that to be itself is not translated into any tense, but depending on whether we are talking about the present, past or future, to be begins to change. As well as Russian word"to be" changes to "was", "is" or "will be" depending on the time.

The roles of the subject are: pronouns, How
I - I
You, you - You
He, she, it - He, she, it
We - We
They - They
And words that can be replaced with these pronouns.
For example, children - they - they

The form of the predicate depends on the subject:
I am
You are
He, she, it is
We are
They are

So am can only be used with I, not in any other case.
We put Are if the subject is you, we, they and words that can be replaced with these pronouns (people, eggs, “you and I”, etc.)
Is appears only after he, she, it and the words they replace (Kate, a boy, an apple, a cow, etc.)

Carefully study the table and examples:

Am, is, are very often are being reduced in speech and writing. An apostrophe is used instead of the first letter.

Negative particle not

If we want to make a negation, then we need to put the negative particle “not” immediately after am, is, are. Not can also be shortened for ease of speech. There are 3 negation options used at the same time:
You are not - You aren't - You're not
But for I am there are only 2 options:
I am not - I’m not. There is no abbreviation for I amn't.

The verbs was and were are one of the most common words in English. It is almost impossible to avoid their use. They act not only as independent verbs, but also participate in the formation of other constructions.

Understanding when was and when were is used is necessary for everyone who learns English. The rules for their use are simple, but they may depend on the role of the verb in the sentence.

The verbs was and were participate in different constructions and appear in different quality. Cases of their use can be divided into 5 types: as the verb “to be”, in the coordination of tenses, for Education Past Continuous, in passive constructions, in conditional sentences with if.

1. Verb "to be"

Was and were in English are two forms of the verb to be in the past tense. They differ in persons and numbers: in the form was the verb is used in the singular, except for the second person (the pronoun you), were - in the plural and in the second person singular.

The rule was / were according to the conjugation table for the verb to be in the past tense:

The cases of using verbs in the meaning “to be” are very similar to sentences in Russian. The use of was / were is typical when describing location, qualities, type of activity and other cases:

The key was in the car – The key was in the car
George was tall and thin – George was tall and thin
I was a dancer – I was a dancer
Her name was Margaret - Her name was Margaret

In negation with the particle not, verbs can take the abbreviated form wasn’t, weren’t. The particle not in this case is adjacent to the verb and loses its vowel “o”:

The key wasn’t in the car - The key was not in the car
They weren’t at home yesterday - Yesterday they weren’t at home

For the verbs was or were the formation rule interrogative sentence does not require the use of an additional verb to do (did in the past tense).

To turn an affirmative sentence into a question, just move was / were to the first place in the phrase. Whereas for all other verbs you need to resort to to do and put it in first place. Let's compare the following examples:

He was in the library (He was in the library) – Was he in the library? (Was he in the library?)
He went to the library (He went to the library) – Did he go to the library? (Did he go to the library?)

You cannot use both verbs to form an interrogative sentence. A sentence like “Did he be in the library?” will be grammatically incorrect.

The verb to be is actively used in a variety of constructions. For example, in the phrases there was / there were. Such constructions indicate the fact of the existence of objects. The rule for when to use was / were depends only on the number of objects referred to in the sentence:

There were six apples in the box – There were 6 apples in the box
There was a very old house at the end of the street - At the end of the street there was a very old house

There are also various set expressions with the verb "to be". This verb is actively used in constructions that describe a state, characteristic or a certain quality. Such phrases include to be interested in (to be interested in something), to be in hurry a (hurry), to be fond of (get carried away by something), to be good at (to understand well, be able to), to be mistaken ( be mistaken) and many others. In sentences with these constructions, different persons of the verb can be used, so here for was were the same rules from the conjugation table are used:

Michel was incredibly fond of dancing – Michael was crazy about dancing

I thought you were in a hurry - I thought you were in a hurry

I could rely on them because they were good at that job - I could rely on them because they did their job well

2. Coordination of times

We must not forget about the rules for agreeing tenses in English: in indirect speech The timing of the subordinate clause depends on the main clause. If main part is said in the past tense, then in the subordinate clause the form of the verb to be changes to was / were. There is no tense agreement in Russian, so the verb does not require a past tense form.

Betty said that you were thinking about buying a new house - Betty said that you were thinking about buying a new house

3. Auxiliary verb for Past Continuous

Another role of the verbs was and were is to serve as a means of forming the Past Continuous. All Continuous tenses are formed through the verb “to be” and the participle with ending ing. Auxiliary does not carry here independent meaning, but only takes on a grammatical function to form the desired form. In the past tense, the verb to be looks like was/were, so the Past Continuous formation formula looks like was/were + V-ing.

In distinguishing between themselves for were or was the rule remains the same as described above, and depends on the number and person according to the conjugation table of the verb to be.

I was packing my suitcases at this time - At this time I was packing my suitcases

They were walking together in the park – They walked together in the park

You were studying in your room when Mr. Gray arrived – You were studying in your room when Mr. Gray arrived

4. Passive constructions (formation of the passive voice)

The use of was / were in English is typical for creating passive constructions in the past tense. Such phrases are formed through the verb to be and the past participle, which is the semantic verb. For the past tense, the formula for the formation of the passive is built as was/were + V3.

The passive (or passive voice) is removed from the sentence in active form and is used in situations where the role of the subject of the original sentence is not so important. IN active voice the subject describes the actor in the situation and is the most important member of the sentence. In the passive voice, the new subject is the object that experiences the action on itself.

The problem was solved - The problem was solved
Children were separated from their parents - Children were separated from their parents

The examples show that the person and number of this new subject determine whether we use was or were. It doesn't matter which phrase the passive sentence is derived from: the form of the verb is determined by the subject of the phrase.

After converting a sentence into a passive, the original subject may completely disappear from the sentence or appear in a less significant position (for example, in the function of an object). Let's illustrate both cases with examples:

He wrote a letter (He wrote a letter) – The letter was written (The letter was written): the subject he (he) from the first sentence completely disappears in the second.

The President approved this law two months ago (The President approved this law two months ago) – This law was approved by the President two months ago (This law was approved by the President two months ago): the subject of the first sentence, the President, does not disappear, but ceases to be the main member and turns from a subject into an object.

If active participant action remains in the sentence, it can be indicated through the preposition by. The preposition with may also appear in a sentence: it refers to inanimate objects and denotes the instrument with which the action was performed.

This house was chosen by my mother - This house was chosen by my mother
The bread was cut with a knife - The bread was cut with a knife

5. Conditional sentences

Conditional sentences are divided into Various types. The second type, in which the atypical use of the verb were, appears, is built according to the scheme if + Past + should/would + Vinf.

Such conditional sentences describe an unrealistic situation that will most likely never come true. By using this construction, the speaker expresses obvious doubts that the situation is possible in reality.

In conditional sentences for the verbs was and were, the rules differ from all the examples discussed earlier: in all numbers and persons, only the form were is used. The verb were appears in the subordinate clause of a sentence if the semantic verb to be is to be used in the construction. Was is not used in English in this type of conditional construction.

If I were a king I wouldn't need such a pompous palace - If I were a king, I wouldn't need such a pompous palace.

The peculiarity of conditional constructions with if is also that the verb were appears in them when the indicated situation refers to the present or future tense, and not the past.

If we were in Paris now I would show you the Eiffel Tower - If we were in Paris now, I would show you the Eiffel Tower.