How to Say "I Was" in Chinese

我是

wǒ shì

In Chinese, 我是 (wǒ shì) is the phrase used to say "I was".

我是 is used to describe a state or identity that someone had in the past. Depending on the context of a sentence, 我是 can mean both "I am" and "I was".

Which one should you use?

To emphasize that a state or identity is no longer true, you can use 我曾是 to mean "I once was" or "I used to be".

Unlike English, the Chinese phrase 我是 does not change its form to indicate past tense.

wǒ shì

To express 'I was' in the sense of 'I was at a place', Chinese speakers do not use 我是 but instead use 我在, meaning 'I at'.
In classical Chinese, the verb 'to be' was often omitted entirely, meaning 'I was a teacher' would be written as if it were 'I teacher'.
To express 'I was' in a state of feeling, such as 'I was happy', Chinese uses 很 meaning 'very' instead of 是 to link the subject to the adjective.

他问我是否很忙。
He asked me if I was busy.
This sentence is useful for showing how 我是 is used in a reported question.
Tatoeba #1878387 by sadhen, translation #297717 by CK
我是在浙江出生的。
I was born in Zhejiang.
This sentence shows how 我是 can be used to describe a past state like being born.
Tatoeba #9991971 by GlossaMatik, translation #12214600 by Miktsoanit
汤姆可能知道我是谁。
Tom probably knew who I was.
This sentence shows how 我是 is used to identify oneself in a past context.
Tatoeba #5595204 by verdastelo9604, translation #2543357 by CK
我曾经是一名老师
I used to be a teacher
我以前是一位工程师
I used to be an engineer
从前我是一个小说家
I used to be a novelist
我以前是一个乐队的成员
I used to be a member of a band
我以前干过服务员
I used to work as a waiter/waitress
我以前搞过一段时间的设计
I used to do design work for a while
32 more sentences on Tatoeba

Yuting and Junjie are talking about their college majors.

雨婷 Yuting

你以前学什么？
Nǐ yǐqián xué shénme?
What did you study before?
俊杰 Junjie

我是学数学的。
Wǒ shì xué shùxué de.
I was a math major.
雨婷 Yuting

真的吗？太难了！
Zhēnde ma? Tài nán le!
Really? That's too hard!
俊杰 Junjie

是的，所以我换专业了。
Shì de, suǒyǐ wǒ huàn zhuānyè le.
Yes, that's why I changed majors.

Sources

⭐Share⭐ to appreciate human effort 🙏