The word(s) "were" appears 426 time(s) in 380 verse(s) in Quran in Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation.

(211) They will say: "Glory to Thee! not meet was it for us that we should take for protectors others besides Thee: But Thou didst bestow, on them and their fathers, good things (in life), until they forgot the Message: for they were a people (worthless and) lost."

(212) And the messengers whom We sent before thee were all (men) who ate food and walked through the streets: We have made some of you as a trial for others: will ye have patience? for Allah is One Who sees (all things).

(213) "He indeed would well-nigh have misled us from our gods, had it not been that we were constant to them!" - Soon will they know, when they see the Penalty, who it is that is most misled in Path!

(214) And He it is Who makes the Night as a Robe for you, and Sleep as Repose, and makes the Day (as it were) a Resurrection.

(215) Those who, when they are admonished with the Signs of their Lord, droop not down at them as if they were deaf or blind;

(216) If (such) were Our Will, We could send down to them from the sky a Sign, to which they would bend their necks in humility.

(217) So the sorcerers were got together for the appointment of a day well-known,

(218) And the people were told: "Are ye (now) assembled?-

(219) We delivered Moses and all who were with him;

(220) "'By Allah, we were truly in an error manifest,