Was, were, there was, there were : le prétérit de be

Was ou were ?

Sujet	Affirmative	Négative	Question
I	I was	I wasn't	Was I?
you	you were	you weren't	Were you?
he / she / it	he was	she wasn't	Was it?
we / you / they	they were	we weren't	Were they?

Comme au présent, be n'utilise jamais did : on dit Were you tired? et non ~~Did you be tired?~~

Réponses courtes : Was it good? — Yes, it was. / No, it wasn't.

There was / there were : il y avait

There was a cat in the garden. / There were lots of people at the party.

Il y avait un chat dans le jardin. / Il y avait beaucoup de monde à la fête.

There was + singulier ou indénombrable, there were + pluriel. Question : Was there any milk? Were there many people? Négative : There wasn't any bread. There weren't any buses.

Was / were + born

« Je suis né » se dit au prétérit : I was born in 2011. Where were you born?

Mise en situation : le lendemain d'une fête

Ava : Were you at Lily's party last night?

Tu étais à la fête de Lily hier soir ?

Leo : Yes, I was! There were so many people.

Oui ! Il y avait tellement de monde.

Ava : Was the music good?

La musique était bien ?

Leo : Yes, it was. But there wasn't any food left when I arrived! I was so hungry.

Oui. Mais il ne restait plus rien à manger quand je suis arrivé ! J'avais tellement faim.

À retenir

I / he / she / it was ; you / we / they were.
Négative : wasn't / weren't ; question : Was he...? Were you...? (jamais did).
There was + singulier ; there were + pluriel.
I was born in... ; Where were you born?

S'entraîner

Exercice Was, were, there was : exercice 1 (QCM)
Exercice Was, were, there was : exercice 2 (à compléter)
Exercice Was, were, there was : mise en situation
Cours Le verbe « to be » (être) en anglais
Cours There is / there are (il y a) en anglais