Question Tags with Be (Past) Exercises

When the main verb is was or were, you use the same verb in the question tag. The positive-negative swap rule stays the same: positive statements get negative tags, negative statements get positive tags. "She was at the party, wasn't she?" reverses the positive "was" to negative "wasn't." Meanwhile, "They weren't happy, were they?" reverses negative "weren't" to positive "were."

The key challenge is matching the correct past form to each subject. Singular subjects (I, he, she, it) use was/wasn't: "He was tired, wasn't he?" Plural subjects (we, you, they) use were/weren't: "We were late, weren't we?" Note that "you" always takes "were," whether referring to one person or many. Unlike present tense, there are no special exceptions like "aren't I" — past tense tags follow the standard pattern consistently. This makes past "be" tags slightly easier once you know which form to use with each subject pronoun. Practising with both singular and plural subjects builds confidence for mixed exercises and real conversations.