Say where you were
I can say where I was yesterday and what was there.
Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.
Grammar
4 minIn the past, the verb be has only two forms:
| I / he / she / it | was |
| you / we / they | were |
| I was at home yesterday. | you say where you were yesterday |
| They were in Italy last summer. | you say where they were last summer |
| Were you at work? | you ask about the past |
| I wasn't at home. | you say "no" about the past |
There was and there were are the same as there is / there are from lesson 13, only in the past: There was a café here, There were two shops on this street.
Past time words: yesterday, last week, last year, two days ago, in 2020.
Common learner errors
written for your languagewas instead of were, and the other way round
✗ You was at home → ✓ You were at home. In many languages "you" for one person and "you" for many people have different verb forms (French tu étais / vous étiez, German du warst / ihr wart). English has one you, and you → were works for one person too.
No verb, as in the present
✗ Yesterday I at home
✓ I was at home yesterday
In Indonesian (Kemarin saya di rumah, "yesterday I at home") or Chinese this sentence needs no verb. Learners whose language has no "be" in the present often drop it in the past too.
The order with ago
✗ ago two days
✓ two days ago
Many languages put the word for "ago" before the number: Portuguese há dois dias, French il y a deux jours, German vor zwei Tagen (so German speakers also say ✗ before two days). And ago easily slips to the front because last goes there: last week, but two days ago.
Pronunciation
3 minIn connected speech was and were are weak: /wəz/ and /wə/. They become stressed only in a short answer and in the negative: Yes, I was, I wasn't.
That is why I was at home sounds almost like /aɪ wəz ət ˈhəʊm/ when you hear it — this is normal.
Text
3 minYesterday I was at home. The weather was cold and it was raining. My sister was at work. She wasn't at home in the evening. Last summer we were in Italy. The weather was hot and sunny. There was a small café next to our hotel. There were a lot of people on the beach.
Exercises
8–10 min1. Gap fill.
- I at home yesterday
- They in Italy last summer
- You at work
- The weather cold
Show the answers
2. Gap fill.
- a café on this street
- two shops here
- a lot of people in the park
Show the answers
3. Error correction.
- You was at home.
- Yesterday I at work.
- I was there ago two days.
Show the answers
4. Matching.
- yesterday
- last year
- two days ago
- now
Show the answers
Summary
Covered
- was and were
- there was / there were
- past time words
Next — lesson 28: how you spent the weekend.
End of the core
The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.
optional
Vocabulary for your deck
12 words- yesterday /ˈjestədeɪ/ the day before today
- last /lɑːst/ the one before this one (last week, last year)
- ago /əˈɡəʊ/ before now (two days ago)
- week /wiːk/ seven days
- month /mʌnθ/ one of the twelve parts of the year: January, February…
- year /jɪə/ twelve months
- holiday /ˈhɒlədeɪ/ days with no work or school; a trip to rest
- people /ˈpiːpl/ more than one person
- a lot of /ə ˈlɒt əv/ a big number or amount of
- beach /biːtʃ/ the place with sand next to the sea
- sea /siː/ a very big area of salt water
- mountain /ˈmaʊntɪn/ a very high hill
Writing
Four sentences: where you were yesterday, where you were last summer, what the weather was like.
Example
Yesterday I was at home. The weather was cold. Last summer I was in Italy. It was hot and sunny.
Checklist
Practise this lesson in the other sections
Got a feature idea?
Tell us what you'd like to see next — we read every message and ship suggestions weekly.
⚑ optional