The word “were” is the past tense form of the verb be used with plural subjects and with “you.” Writers use it to describe past states, conditions, or actions. The examples below are drawn from authentic works to show how “were” appears in real writing.
Real Sentences for Were
They were the tracks of unshod ponies, three of them, and the ponies had been galloping.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
16 words, 88 characters
His manners were perfect, and his courtliness was that of a typical southern gentleman of the highest type.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
18 words, 107 characters
They were in part peculiar indeed, but I have followed them to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
21 words, 108 characters
Or were they simply fools or cowards, submitting blindly, because they had not the wit nor the will to do otherwise?
Source: King Coal by Upton Sinclair
21 words, 116 characters
It was Tars Tarkas, and I could read his thoughts as they were an open book for the undisguised loathing upon his face.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
23 words, 119 characters
There were no marks of violence on the body, and with the aid of a local physician the coroner’s jury quickly reached a decision of death from heart failure.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
29 words, 158 characters
His features were regular and clear cut, his hair black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray, reflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and initiative.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
32 words, 187 characters
We were extremely fortunate, for late in the winter of 1865, after many hardships and privations, we located the most remarkable gold-bearing quartz vein that our wildest dreams had ever pictured.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
31 words, 196 characters
I am not given to needless worrying, but the more I tried to convince myself that all was well with Powell, and that the dots I had seen on his trail were antelope or wild horses, the less I was able to assure myself.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
44 words, 217 characters
Powell, I knew, was well armed and, further, an experienced Indian fighter; but I too had lived and fought for years among the Sioux in the North, and I knew that his chances were small against a party of cunning trailing Apaches.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
42 words, 230 characters
All in the forecastle presently signified their intention of submitting, and, ascending one by one, were pinioned and then thrown on their backs, together with the first six—there being in all, of the crew who were not concerned in the mutiny, twenty-seven.
Source: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
43 words, 258 characters
He was, when others were with him, the same genial, happy fellow we had known of old, but when he thought himself alone I have seen him sit for hours gazing off into space, his face set in a look of wistful longing and hopeless misery; and at night he would sit thus looking up into the heavens, at what I did not know until I read his manuscript years afterward.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
71 words, 363 characters
Since we had entered the territory we had not seen a hostile Indian, and we had, therefore, become careless in the extreme, and were wont to ridicule the stories we had heard of the great numbers of these vicious marauders that were supposed to haunt the trails, taking their toll in lives and torture of every white party which fell into their merciless clutches.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
64 words, 364 characters
He strongly advised me, among others, to prepare at once a full account of what I had seen and undergone, and trust to the shrewdness and common sense of the public—insisting, with great plausibility, that however roughly, as regards mere authorship, my book should be got up, its very uncouthness, if there were any, would give it all the better chance of being received as truth.
Source: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
67 words, 382 characters
Upon my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of which an account is given in the following pages, accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, VA, who felt deep interest in all matters relating to the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the public.
Source: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
77 words, 423 characters
More examples coming soon.
