‘Were’ is a verb, specifically the past tense form of ‘to be’. It is used to indicate a state of being or existence in the past. The verb ‘to be’ is an auxiliary and main verb in English, used to form various tenses and aspects.
For example, in the sentence ‘They were happy’, ‘were’ expresses a condition or state that existed at a previous time. It’s important to note that ‘were’ can also function as a subjunctive mood in conditional statements, such as ‘If I were you’.