THERE WAS / THERE WERE (EXISTENCE IN PAST) Remember we use There was for singular and There were

for plural. AFFIRMATIVE

THERE WAS

A /AN

THERE WERE # / a lot of

There were a lot of people at the park yesterday, There was a nice fair, There were some horses, There was an ice cream parlor, There were 10 benches, There was a clown.

REMEMBER: In singular we use (a / an) and in plural we use an (s). We cannot ever use both at the same time. Example: There were 3 bottles of milk in the fridge last night. There was an apple.

IMPORTANT: There are some nouns which have a special pluralization form. Example: Child children Fish fish EXERCISES A) FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH WAS / WERE December 25 , Dear Santa:
th

Mouse - mice Deer - deer

Thank you very much for all the presents you left me last Xmas, I enjoyed them very much. We had a great Xmas party tonight. Can you ever join us? There ______ a big cake, there ______ different dishes; you know my mom is an excellent cook. There ______ also a funny jelly, there ______ bags of candy for all the children, there ______ a raffle and there ______ a lot of presents.

I hope you can join us next Christmas, Mike

B)

ORGANIZE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES

1. was /an / night / block / my / there / accident / last / on.

2. boring / there / movies / TV. / were / on / yesterday.

3. revolution / in / there / Mexico / was / a.

4. problems / office / weeks / ago / there / many / too / were / the / in / two.

5. downtown / show / was / a / there / morning / this.

QUESTIONS
As you do it in present, just place was / were at the beginning to ask a question.

WAS there a / an WERE there

____________? # / many s ____________?

YES, there was / were NO, there wasnt / werent

Was there a nice program on TV last night? Yes, there was one.

Were there beautiful girls at the last party? No, there werent any.

Was there a bottle of water on the table this morning? No, there wasnt one.

Were there nice people last course? Yes, there were nice ones.

EXERCISES

A)

ASK A QUESTION THAT MATCHES THE ANSWER.

1. _______________________________________________________________________________? No, there wasnt one. 2. _______________________________________________________________________________? Yes and there were nice boys, too. 3. _______________________________________________________________________________? No, there were 3. 4. _______________________________________________________________________________? There were 10. 5. _______________________________________________________________________________? Yes, there was one.