Subject-Verb Agreement With Was And Were

Verbs including past tense forms of to be must also change to agree with their subjects.

The flowers were sprouting indoors, but the parsley on the porch wasn't sprouting yet. The garden was fertilized with manure in the fall, and the pots indoors were fertilized chemically.

Here are the simple past tense forms of to be.

Singular	Plural
I was	we were
you were	you were
she was, he was, it was	they were
(any singular subject) was	(any plural subject) were

Whether was and were act as single-word verbs or as auxiliaries, they follow this same pattern. Practice them first as single-word verbs.

Application 2

When was or were act as auxiliaries in verb strings, was goes with all singular subjects except you.

I was drying my hair.
You were drying your hair.
The wind was drying our hair.

Application 3

Application 4