Past tense of be
irregular verb
The past tense of be is was or were. The past participle is been.
Forms of be
| Base form (V1) | be /ˈbiː/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | was /wəz/ were /wə(ɹ)/ |
| Past participle (V3) | been /ˈbɪn/ |
| Present participle | being /ˈbiː.ɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | is /ɪz/ |
Was and were in a sentence
- The dog was saved by the boy.
- Study courses of Esperanto and Ido have been broadcast.1995, C. K. Ogden, Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952, C. K. Ogden, →ISBN, page 13
- He was frustrated because he couldn't find anything about dinosaurs in the book.From the entry book
- As I tiptoed past the sleeping dog, my heart was pounding but I remained silent.From the entry pound
- I was so happy to get an A on that test.From the entry a
Meaning of be
- verb Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
- verb Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
- verb Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
Questions about the past tense of be
- What is the past tense of be?
- The past tense of be is was or were.
- What is the past participle of be?
- The past participle of be is been.
- Is be a regular or irregular verb?
- Be is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: be (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of be.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/be. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.