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

(181) Nor did We give them bodies that ate no food, nor were they exempt from death.

(182) How many were the populations We utterly destroyed because of their iniquities, setting up in their places other peoples?

(183) Flee not, but return to the good things of this life which were given you, and to your homes in order that ye may be called to account.

(184) They said: "Ah! woe to us! We were indeed wrong-doers!"

(185) If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion in both! but glory to Allah, the Lord of the Throne: (High is He) above what they attribute to Him!

(186) Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?

(187) Mocked were (many) messenger before thee; But their scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked.

(188) We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct, and well were We acquainted with him.

(189) Then were they confounded with shame: (they said), "Thou knowest full well that these (idols) do not speak!"

(190) And to Lut, too, We gave Judgment and Knowledge, and We saved him from the town which practised abominations: truly they were a people given to Evil, a rebellious people.