was

CEFRA1

/wəz/

verb

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    Past form of be used with I, he, she, or it.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    third-person singular simple past indicative of be.

Examples

  • He was absent from work for two weeks.

  • I was in the mountains.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /wæs/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. Used in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural.

  2. first-person singular simple past indicative of be.

  3. second-person singular simple past indicative of be; were.

More examples

In context

  • That was an evil bunny.

  • It was a really humongous slice of cake.

  • I was castigated and scorned.

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Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English was, from Old English wæs, from Proto-Germanic *was, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂we-h₂wós-e from *h₂wes- (“to reside”), whence also vestal. See also Scots was, West Frisian was (dated, wie is generally preferred today), Dutch was, Low German was, German war, Swedish var); also Kamkata-viri vos-, Sanskrit उवास (uvā́sa). The paradigm of “to be” has been since the time of Proto-Germanic a synthesis of three originally distinct verb stems. The infinitive form be is from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become”). The forms is and are are both derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Lastly, the past forms starting with w- such as was and were are from Proto-Indo-Euro...