Basic of English

(-) Subject + to be (was/were) + not + (......)

(?) To be (was/were) + subject + (.......)?

Example Sentences with Simple Past Tense:

1. She gave me a box of chocolate yesterday.

2. I was not in Japan two months ago. (without verbs)

3. Did My father call the teacher last week?

4. Were you happy last night? (without verbs)

That's English material for beginners and various explanations that I can give you. Even though there are quite a lot of variations, you can try using the sentence patterns interchangeably to make it easier to understand.