SİMPLE PAST TENSE VE PAST FORME

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Was, Were (The past form of 'to be')

Was, Were

wasn't, weren't

WAS

I was at home two hours ago. ( Ben, iki saat önce evdeydim.)

She was in hospital last Monday. ( O, geçen pazartesi hastanedeydi.)

He was in İzmir in June. (O, haziran ayında İzmir'deydi.)

It was rainy yesterday. ( Dün, yağmurluydu.)

There was some milk in the fridge yesterday.( Dün, buzdolabında biraz süt vardı.)

WERE

Were you at school yesterday? (Dün okulda mıydın?)

We were in the cinema last weekend. ( Geçen hafta sonu sinemadaydık.)

They were in Paris in 1999. ( 1999 yılında , onlar Paris'teydiler.)

There were forty students in our class last year. ( Geçen yıl sınıfımızda kırk öğrenci vardı. )

WASN'T

She wasn't at school yesterday. ( O, dün okulda değildi.)

He wasn't in Isparta last week. (O, geçen hafta Isparta'da değildi.)

I wasn't ill yesterday. ( Ben dün hasta değildim.)

WEREN'T

You weren't a bad student. ( sen, kötü bir öğrenci değildin.)

We weren't on the bus at five o'clock. (Biz, saat beşte otobüste değildik.)

They weren't tired in the morning. (Onlar sabahleyin yorgun değillerdi.)

How do we make the Simple Past Tense?
To make the simple past tense, we use:

past form only
or

auxiliary did + base form
Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:
worked
exploded
liked worked
exploded
liked The past form for all regular verbs ends in -ed.
irregular verb go
see
sing went
saw
sang gone
seen
sung The past form for irregular verbs is variable. You need to learn it by heart.
You do not need the past participle form to make the simple past tense. It is shown here for completeness only.

The structure for positive sentences in the simple past tense is:

subject + main verb
past

The structure for negative sentences in the simple past tense is:

subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb
did base

The structure for question sentences in the simple past tense is:

auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
did base

The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main verbs go and work:

subject auxiliary verb main verb
+ I went to school.
You worked very hard.
- She did not go with me.
We did not work yesterday.
? Did you go to London?
Did they work at home?

Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:

subject main verb
+ I, he/she/it was here.
You, we, they were in London.
- I, he/she/it was not there.
You, we, they were not happy.
? Was I, he/she/it right?
Were you, we, they late?

Use of the Simple Past Tense