I love teaching online! (Another in a series of "things no one has ever said in the history of mankind." If someone DOES actually say this... run away as fast as you can. They're about to molt and become a lizard-man.)
Next, go play Memrise! The following items will be on your quiz...
1. Say you want to give your friend a present.
2. Ask a friend to help you choose a gift for someone.
3. Tell a friend it's hard to advise him/her.
4. Suggest that your friend go with you to the market.
5. Get a salesperson's attention.
6. Ask a salesperson to show you a scarf (book, hat).
7. Ask how much the scarf (book, hat) costs.
8. Ask if the store accepts credit cards.
9. Ask a friend where you can buy shoes (gloves, hats, pants).
10. State that you need to buy socks (shoes, gloves).
11. Say that something is expensive (inexpensive, cheap).
12. Say that a new department (store, library, market) just opened.
13. Wish someone a happy birthday.
14. Ask how someone knew you love Pelevin (Chekhov, Bunin, Akhmatova).
15. Thank someone enthusiastically.
Now, contemplate this.
So, no surprises here. The subject is the thing, and the verb form reflects the gender/number of the thing that you're asserting the existence of: он был, она была, оно было, они были. (Again, notice that there is no gender in the plural in Russian! It used to have it, before the 15th century, but languages change... By the way, most other Slavic languages have a "plural feminine" and a "plural masculine.)
Practice this below... It's pretty straightforward. Identify the nominative (it's the THING in each sentence), determine its gender/number, and then fill in the appropriate form of быть.
And then there's nonexistence...
I didn't have time. I didn't have money. I didn't have happiness.
If you're expressing "didn't have" (negated possession) in the past, you'll 1) need to use the GENITIVE (no surprise, genitive is quantity, and you're saying "there's nothing"); 2) the verb form не было ALWAYS, because now you don't have a subject (nothing is in the nominative).
Look at these examples:
This is confusing, but: the THING you are "netting" is in the genitive and the VERB FORM is always не было.
Listen as I read the examples from above. Не было is pronounced [ñébylǝ], one word, accent on the не:
ОК, now you do a few...
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