was / was not (past forms of です)

Deshita is the polite past of desu, and ja arimasen deshita is its negative. Use them with nouns and na-adjectives to talk about the past. Note that i-adjectives have their own past form and do not use deshita this way.

Examples

• 昨日きのうは雨あめでした。

  Kinou wa ame deshita.

  It was rainy yesterday.

• テストは簡単かんたんじゃありませんでした。

  Tesuto wa kantan ja arimasen deshita.

  The test was not easy.

Vocabulary in these examples

• 昨日 yesterday
• 雨 rain
• テスト test
• 簡単 simple, easy
• ある to exist (inanimate); to have

Related patterns · です and basic sentences

• 〜です X is Y (polite copula)
• 〜じゃありません is not (polite negative of です)
• 〜か question marker
• 〜ね / 〜よ sentence endings: agreement (ne) and new information (yo)
• 〜でしょう probably; I suppose