Verb

war

Translation

was, were

Ich war gestern krank.

I was sick yesterday.

Es war sehr kalt.

It was very cold.

Wir waren im Kino.

We were at the movie theater.

((Subject)) ((adjective/noun)) ...was/were... I was sick yesterday.

hatte (had)

From Proto-Germanic *was, past tense of *wesaną ('to be'). Cognate with English 'was'.

It's almost identical to the English 'was'. Think of 'war' as the past tense, like a historical war that 'was' long ago.