When to use is was were?

When to use is was were?

If you want to remember easily, you can think of was/were as the past tense form of the auxiliary verbs am, is and are. Generally, “was is used for singular objects and “were” is used for plural objects. So, you will use “was” with I, he, she and it while you will use “were” with you, we and they.

Why do we use were in subjunctive?

The subjunctive is also used in sentences that express contrary-to-fact conditions. Beyonce sings, “If I were a boy”. She uses “were” instead of “was” because she’s talking about something that’s contrary to fact: Beyonce is not a boy. She’s simply indulging in her imagination when she sings those words.

Is was or were a subjective?

If you are speaking of a conditional or hypothetical situation, the verb were is the correct choice, regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural. Using the word if is a reliable indicator of using the subjective mood.

Is were and was the same?

Chances are, you’re familiar with one difference between was and were: that was is the first and third-person singular past tense of the verb to be, while were is the second-person singular past and plural past of to be.

Was were questions with short answers?

Short Answers with Was / Were

Sample Questions	Short Answer (Affirmative)*	Short Answer (Negative)
Were they hungry?	Yes, they were.	No, they weren’t.
Was he late again?	Yes, he was.	No, he wasn’t.
Was she a good student?	Yes, she was.	No, she wasn’t.
Was it ready?	Yes, it was.	No, it wasn’t.

What the difference between was and were?

Why do we use were instead of was in conditional sentences?

With the phrase “If I were / if she were… etc.” you are changing the “mood” of the verb from indicative to subjunctive (see quick grammar tip below). Therefore, whenever you use the second conditional to talk (or write) about a hypothetical situation, use were instead of was in the if clause.

Were or was Twinkl?

The basic rule for deciding between ‘was’ and ‘were’ is that a singular subject takes a singular verb (was), and a plural subject takes a plural verb (were). For example. ‘he was prepared for school’ and ‘we were scared of thunder. ‘

Was and were future tense?

As for the simple future forms will, going to and the continuous, there are three future in the past forms: would, was/were going to and was/were + continuous verb.

Is were the plural of was?

A main difference is that one (was) is singular, and the other (were) is often plural. If was is past-tense singular, then it refers to one person or object being in a previous moment or time.

Was were in WH questions?

Terms in this set (8)

• Why were you absent yesterday? Because I was sick.
• What time was the concert? It was at 8 o’ clock.
• Where were you yesterday?
• Where was your brother last night?
• Where were your parents last month?
• When was your last birthday party?
• What was the concert like?
• Where were your cousins born?

Was and were with pronouns?

WAS is usually used with the pronouns ‘I’, ‘she’, ‘he’, and ‘it’. WERE is usually used with pronouns ‘you’, ‘we’, and ‘they’. (See the information just before and after ‘USE 2’ below, for more information about the use of the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘I’.)

Was or were with second conditional?

In the second conditional, when the verb in the if-clause is a form of be, we use were instead of was. Note that this use of were is possible and recommended with all subjects. Was is also becoming acceptable, but many grammarians still insist that you should use were.

Are is was were?

“Is” and “are” are present tense singular and plural. “Was” and “were” are past tense singular and plural. I am, he is, you are , they are, we are, : I was, he was, you were, they were, we were.

Was and were examples of the past tense?

So to recap, if you’re talking about something real that happened in the past, use the past tense indicative: I was or he/she/it was. (Were is used with the other pronouns.) Here are some example sentences: I was sick last night.

Was were going to tense?

Was/were going to is used to talk about a past future firm plan, intention or a prediction with evidence. Was/were + continuous verb is used to talk about a future in the past that was a personal arrangement.

Was were going to examples?

She were going to call last night, but she forgot. She was going to call last night, but she forgot. She going to call last night, but she forgot. She was calling last night, but she forgot.

Was were past tense?

Whereas was is the singular past tense of to be, were is used for both the third person plural past tense (they and we) and the second person past tense (you). In the past indicative, were acts similar to was. “They were at the store,” you could say, for example.