English uses verbs in the simple past tense to refer to actions
situations, or events that are finished and that happened before
now. There are three ways to form simple past tense in English.
These three different ways depend on the verb:

Today we'll look at the simple past forms of be.

The verb be uses two forms in the simple past: were and was:

To make these forms negative, add not after were or was:

The negative forms are often contracted:

Examples

She was there.
She was not there.
She wasn't there.

They were here yesterday.
They were not here yesterday.
They weren't here yesterday.

I was at home last night.
I was not at home last night.
I wasn't at home last night.

You were very kind.
You were not rude.
You weren't rude.