Past Tense of to be

Simple Past Tense 1/1

Exercises for beginners

Forming the past tense of to be.

                       Affirmative and negative sentence            Interrogative sentence

I	was					I
He	was not				Was	he
She	wasn’t	at home				she	at home
It		in hospital	yesterday.			it	in hospital	yesterday.
You	were	on holiday	last week.			you	on holiday	last week.
We	were not	in London			Were	we	in London
They	weren’t					they

Task 1 - Complete the sentences with the Past Tense of ‘to be’.

1)   We  in Australia.

2)  She  in the classroom.

3)  It  my birthday last week.

4)  The man  in the train.

5)  It  an apple.

6)  You  in a bookshop.

7)  It  a doll.

8)  I  a good pupil.

9)  What  this?

10)  It  a French lesson.

11)  London  a beautiful city.

12)  He  my brother.

13)  I  in London today.

14)  We  on holiday.

15)  The doctors  here.

Task 2 - Rewrite the sentences into the Simple Past Tense. Then write a negative sentence. Use the short forms. Look at the example below.

e.g. I am at home.  I was at home. I wasn’t at home.

1)      He is my friend.  . .

2)    I am a man.  . .

3)    It is an umbrella.  . .

4)    That is a bird.  . .

5)    These are your pens and pencils.  . .

6)    They are happy people.  . .

7)    This is a kitchen.  . .

8)    Those are two bags, a ruler and a rubber.  .

                                                                           .

9)    We are in.  . .

10) You are my brother.  . .

Task 3 - Rewrite the sentences into the Simple Past. Then write an interrogative sentence. Look at the example below.

e.g. Mr Smith is at home.  Mr Smith was at home. Was Mr Smith at home?

1)      I am a good teacher.  . ?

2)    Mickey is strong and brave.  . ?

3)    My name is Susan.  . ?

4)    Peter is a boy.  . ?

5)    She is a young woman.  . ?

6)    These are my comics.  . ?

7)    This is a family.  . ?

8)    This pen is blue.  . ?

9)    We are from Australia.  . ?

10) You are a stupid girl.  . ?

Task 4 - Change the following sentences into interrogative then give short answers according to the sign. Look at the examples.

e.g. Mr Smith was at home.   Was Mr Smith at home? Yes, he was.

     Tim and Peter were in the library.   Were Tim and Peter in the library? No, they weren’t.

1)      I was in the garden.   ? .

2)    Mum was ill last week.   ? .

3)    They were on holiday in May.   ? .

4)    You were tired yesterday.   ? .

5)    We were in the park at 5 o’clock yesterday.   ? .

6)    Jack was too fat two years ago.   ? .

7)    The Lees were in the zoo the day before yesterday.   ?

                                                                                                   .

8)    I was always hungry.   ? .

9)   Kim and Greg were married .   ? .

10) Frank Sinatra was a famous actor.   ? .

Task 5 – Collect and write down the adverbs of time one after the other in Task 5.

1) 

2) 

3) 

4) 

5) 

6) 

7) 

        

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