Past simple affirmative of the verb “to be”

Today we are going to look at the simple past affirmative of the verb “to be” in English. We have already studied the present simple form of the verb “to be” in unit 1. If you wish to refresh your memory, please refer back to that unit.

Now let’s look at the simple past form of the verb “to be.

Singular

Notice that the simple past form of the verb “to be” in the singular form is always “was”. However, as an exception we use “were” for the second person singular and plural.

I was

I was a great football player when I was a kid.

You were (exception)

You were always a good student when you were at school.

He was

He was very hungry this morning.

She was

She was tired after running the race.

It was

The house was painted red.

Plural

For the simple past plural forms of the verb “to be” we always use the verb “were.”

You were

You were good friends with Mike and John when you were younger.

They were

My marks at school were always good at school.

We were

We were always first in the class.

See? It really is that simple?

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