English

Simple Past: verb "to be"

The Simple Past Tense (with the verb to be)

Similar to the Present simple tense, The simple past is divided in two main parts. The form with the “to be” and with “other verbs”

It is quite simple. We DO NOT use auxiliaries (do, does, don’t and doesn’t) To form the negative we just add the “not” and for questions

we just switch the SUBJECT and the VERB TO BE.

In present tense we used: Am / Is / Are

NOW IN PAST TENSE WE USE ONLY 2 CONJUGATIONS! >>> WAS & WERE
He / she / it — was (Positive) Wasn’t (Negative)
I / we / you / They— were (Positive) Weren’t (Negative)

YES:
- I/HE/SHE/IT => was
-YOU/ WE/THEY =>were

NO:
- I/HE/SHE/IT => wasn't
-YOU/WE/THEY => weren't

Verb to be with question words:

In this class we will talk about question words and how we can use them with the verb to be in the present tense.

Question words are those words that may go in the beginning of a question. When we use question words we do not use a yes or no answer.

Ejemplo :

What’s your name?
I’m David Taylor. (The answer is a sentence)

With no question word:

Are you Maria?
No, I’m not (The answer is a yes/no because there isn’t a question word)

Question words are used to gather specific information. The following table shows the meaning of the question words in Spanish.

English	Spanish
Where	Donde
Why	Por que
Who	Quien
What / (time)	Que / Cual (a que hora)
Which	Que / Cual
How long	Por cuanto tiempo / para medidas
How often	Con que frecuencia
Whose	De quien
How many/much	Cuantos
How old	Edad
How	Como
How + adjetivo	Descripciones
How come	Como asi

Question Word	Verb (to be)	Subject	Complement
What	is	(your) name?	[no complement]
How old	are	you?	[no complement]
Where	is	Juan	from?
Who	is	(the) present	for?

Remember:
In questions with the verb to be, only the question words can go in the beginning. Nothing may go in front of the question words in full questions.

Where are you from? (QW goes first)

Typical questions with the above properties:

What is this for? (¿Para que es esto?)
Who are the books for ? (¿Para quien son los libros?)
What is the movie about? (¿De que se trata el libro?)