"I had work yesterday."

Translation: きのうはしごとでした。

[Lavitas]

I don't get this sentence at all. Could someone break it down for me, please?

[Zachary137372]

The topic is きのう, meaning yesterday. It's followed by は, the topic marker. Then comes しごと, or work. Finally, the normal copula です is replaced with でした because it's past tense. So a literal word-by-word translation could be, "Regarding yesterday, party did." The one who partied is implied to be the speaker in the absense of context, but that depends on the conversation or paragraph.

[Zachary137372]

Sorry, not "party did", "work did". Don't know how I screwed that up.

[not_a_thing]

Wouldn' the translation be more like "...the party was"? If so I don't get the sentence either

[yuckyyyy]

what is the difference between しごと and はたらき?

[FrostDirt]

しごと is a noun (you might translate it to 'job') while はたらく is a verb "work"

[TaylorScot3]

Usually with expressions of time, a particle isn't explicitly necessary, at least with simple statements like these.
At least, that was my understanding....

[Keith_APP]

The context may be, it was a Sunday and I don't usually need to work.

[sorayahassan]

Can someone tell me how to say " I was busy with work" ?

[amrok]

So today i will work is 今日はしごとです。？