To fill in the blanks with the correct forms of "was" and "were," it's important to understand the basic rules of their usage in the past tense. "Was" is used with singular subjects like "I," "he," "she," and "it," while "were" is used with plural subjects like "we," "you," and "they." The negative forms are "wasn't" (was not) and "weren't" (were not).
Let's go through each sentence:
A: Where were you last night, Mark?
B: I was at the cinema with Peter.
- "Where were you" is correct because "you" is a plural or singular subject that takes "were."
- "I was" is correct because "I" takes "was."
A: Annie wasn't at school yesterday.
B: Yes, I know. She was sick.
- "Annie wasn't" is correct because "Annie" is a singular subject and takes "was" in the negative form.
- "She was" is correct because "she" takes "was."
A: Were the children at home yesterday morning?
B: No, they weren't. They were at the zoo.
- "Were the children" is correct because "the children" is a plural subject.
- "They weren't" is correct because "they" is a plural subject in the negative form.
- "They were" is again correct for the same reason as the previous clause.
A: Were you and Sophie at the mall yesterday morning?
B: Yes. We were in Jenny's clothes shop because there was a sale on.
- "Were you and Sophie" is correct because "you and Sophie" is a plural subject.
- "We were" is correct because "we" is a plural subject.
- "There was" is correct because "a sale" is a singular subject.
These choices follow the grammatical rules for using "was" and "were" in the past tense, ensuring that the subject-verb agreement is correct.