PAST TENSE (WAS / WERE)

USING WAS AND WERE

When the statement being made is about a situation in the past that actually occurred (not a hypothetical situation), then was is for singular subjects, and were is for plural.

"I was there."
"They were not there."
"We were there."
"You and I were there."

Exception: even though the subject you is singular, you use were.

"You were there."





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ACTIVITY

1. READ THE FOLLOWING STORY.

                                           THE OLYMPICS

The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, featuring sporting events alongside ritual sacrifices honoring both Zeus (whose famous statue by Phidias stood in his temple at Olympia) and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia. Pelops was famous for his chariot race with King Oenomaus of Pisatis. The winners of the events were admired and immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and this period, known as an Olympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement. The Games were part of a cycle known as the Panhellenic Games, which included the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games, and the Isthmian Games.

The Olympic Games reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, but then gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power and influence in Greece. There is no consensus on when the Games officially ended, the most common-held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I declared that all pagan cults and practices be eliminated. Another date cited is 426 AD, when his successor Theodosius II ordered the destruction of all Greek temples. After the demise of the Olympics, they were not held again until the late 19th century.



2. Identify the uses of was were in the previous reading.

3. Watch the next video about an olymioic competence.