Past Simple tense – to be

We use the past simple to talk about what happened in the past.

When we use the verb to be in the past, we talk about where we were.
For example: Now, I am at home, writing this blog.

Yesterday, I was at home too.

So, you see, the verb to be – am – changes to – was.

Present                                                      Past

I am                                                            I was

You are                                                       You were

He/She/It is                                                He/She/It was

We are                                                        We were

You are                                                       You were

They are                                                      They were

We often use the past simple tense with time expressions which help us understand that it was in the past.
The example I used earlier was yesterday.

Sometimes we have specific words like yesterday, but we often put the word last before a time, e.g Last week.

Here are some more examples with last:

Last night

Last month 

Last year

Last summer

Note: It is important to say Last and not The last.
For example: Last summer, I was in Ireland. The last summer, I was in Ireland.

We can also use the word ago to talk about a period of time before now.

1 hour ago.

2 weeks ago.

7 years ago.

To make a question with the verb to be in the past, we use Was/were followed by a subject:

Were you in the house yesterday?

Questions

Was I

Were You

Was He/She/It

Were we

Were you

Were they