The Past Tense of "To Be"
In Russian, the verb "to be" (быть) is usually skipped in the present tense. However, in the past tense, you must use it explicitly.
Unlike English, past tense verbs in Russian do not change based on the person (I, you, they). Instead, they change based on the gender and number of the subject.
| Subject | Past Tense Form |
|---|---|
| Masculine | был |
| Feminine | была |
| Neuter | было |
| Plural | были |
Talking About the Past
Match the verb to your subject. Since мы (we) is plural, it takes были.
| Yesterday we were in the park. | Вчера мы были в парке. |
To make a past tense sentence negative, place не directly before the verb. Ivan is masculine, so he takes был.
| Ivan was not in the office yesterday. | Иван вчера не был в офисе. |
You will often use words like позавчера (the day before yesterday) or недавно (recently) to set the scene.
The word for weather (погода) is feminine, taking была:
| The day before yesterday the weather was very warm. | Позавчера была очень тёплая погода. |
Neuter nouns, like the sea (море), take было:
| Recently the sea was warm. | Недавно море было тёплое. |
Describing How Things Used to Be
When using это (this/that/it) to point something out, the past tense of быть matches the noun you are identifying. Because city (город) is masculine, "this was a city" uses был:
| Earlier this was a small city. | Раньше это был маленький город. |
However, when describing an abstract situation without naming a specific noun (like "it was a long time ago"), default to the neuter form было:
| This was a very long time ago. | Это было очень давно. |