Were you busy yesterday? Were you out last night? They were seen to go out. I wish he were here now. In both the sentences, the word were is used in the past tense of the two sentences ‘they are tired’ and ‘the students are happy when they see the new books in the library’ respectively. English can be difficult, especially when it comes to words that can be easily confused. At the end of this sentence. We were very tired. The cat and the dog were sitting on the fence. Instead of saying, "There is a book on the table," as the cited example above does, write "A book is on the table." I wish I were young. Where is the period? All of us were silent. Where to Use Was/Were? Generally, “was is used for singular objects and “were” is used for plural objects. Any sentence with two subjects takes a plural verb. My English99 teacher wrote a mark "weak" on my sentence starts with 'there' Dec 07 2009 23:12:39. anonymous "There" is a false subject and no, the word should not begin a sentence. There is a tip you might want to consider. We were younger then. What does were mean? Jonathan Oldstyle and Diedrich Knickerbocker are the subjects of the sentence. Two seats were vacant. Even though you are singular, you must use “were”. How to use Were, Where, and We're in a sentence. They were very excited. See more. I wish I were a prince. Where were you going? (verb) They were a fine group. Observe the two sentences … I wish I were rich. The difference between Were, Where, and We're. Alternatively, you can use the passive sentence form in the sentence as follows: “The players were slammed against the boards during the hockey game.” In such cases, the terms are used correctly by describing the state and tense of the subject in the passive form. Jonathan Oldstyle and Diedrich Knickerbocker were two of Irving's pen name. There were two cakes. "Were" We were all tired. A couple of examples would be who vs whom and further vs farther. Both ‘are’ and ‘were… Third-person plural simple past tense indicative of be. Where is a word used to ask the location of something (most of the time). Those are two completely different words. Since ‘are’ is in the present tense, it must be used to denote an action that is being done in the present. Forty people were present. So, you will use “was” with I, he, she and it while you will use “were” with you, we and they. Had been is used in the past perfect continuous tense. They were taken prisoner. The answer is were. Another combo that can get confusing is was vs were. “You was” is an incorrect usage. Its counterpart, ‘were’, is used when the subject of the sentence is plural, and the action or condition that is expressed has already been completed or the event happened in the past. What does Had Been mean? Learn here. Were definition, a second person singular past indicative; first, second, and third person plural past indicative; and past subjunctive of be. 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