być

1. to be indicates sameness or membership in a class
2. to be auxilary verb used for predication
3. in future tense, forms future tense of imperfective verbs
4. in past tense, forms pluperfect tense
5. to be indicates location, there be

były

• Adj

  1. former, previous (holding a certain function or position in the past but no longer so at the time of speaking)
  2. former, previous (of nations; existing in the past but no longer so at the time of speaking, or now being in a different place or having a different form)

• Noun
• Verb