Za razliku od srpskog jezika, u engleskom jeziku glagol " to be" u prošlosti ima samo dva oblika, a to su was i were, koji se upotrebljavaju uz određena lica što možete videti u narednoj tabeli.

Subjekat	To Be	Primer
I	was	I was tired this morning.
You	were	You were very good.
He	was	He was the best in his class.
She	was	She was late for work.
It	was	It was a sunny day.
We	were	We were at home.
You	were	You were on holiday.
They	were	They were married.

To Be - Odrični oblik

Odrični oblik se gradi tako što se na "was i were" doda rečca "not", što se da videti u sledećim primerima:

Subjekat	To Be	Primer
I	was not	I was not tired this morning.
You	were not	You were not crazy.
He	was not	He was not happy.
She	was not	She was not famous.
It	was not	It was not hot yesterday.
We	were not	We were not invited.
You	were not	You were not at the party.
They	were not	They were not friends.

To Be - Odrične skraćenice

Odrične skraćenice glagola "to be" se prave spajanjem glagola "was" ili "were" I rečce "not" (npr. Were not = weren't). Skraćenice se u ovom slučaju ne mogu praviti spajanjem subjekta I glagola kao što je to slučaj sadašnjosti.

Puni oblik	ili	Skraćeni oblik
I was not tired this morning.	/	I wasn't tired this morning.
You were not crazy.	/	You weren't crazy.
He was not happy.	/	He wasn't happy.
She was not famous.	/	She wasn't famous.
It was not hot yesterday.	It's	It wasn't hot yesterday.
We were not invited.	/	We weren't invited.
You were not at the party.	/	You weren't at the party.
They were not friends.	/	They weren't friends.

To Be - Upitni oblik

Upitni oblik se gradi inverzijom subjekta I predikata, odnosno njihovom zamenom mesta. Tako da bismo napravili pitanje sa glagolom "to be", moramo prvo upotrebiti glagol pa tek onda subjekat. Potvrdni oblik - You were happy. Upitni oblik - Were you happy? U narednoj tabeli možemo da vidimo glagol "to be" u upitnim oblicima.

Potvrdni oblik	Upitni oblik
I was late.	Was I late?
You were sick.	Were you sick?
He was surprised.	Was he surprised?
She was from Italy.	Was she from Italy?
It was a big house.	Was it a big house?
We were ready.	Were we ready?
You were early.	Were you early?
They were busy.	Were they busy?