bylo

Bylo is a neuter past tense form of the verb “to be” in several Slavic languages, most commonly Czech, Slovak, and Russian in transliterated form. It generally means “it was” or “there was” and is used with neuter subjects or in impersonal statements.

In Polish, the equivalent form is written as było, with a diacritic; it serves the same grammatical role for neuter subjects. Other past-tense forms in Polish show gender agreement (for example, był for masculine, była for feminine). In Czech and Slovak, bylo is the standard neuter past form of být (to be) and appears in everyday statements such as “To bylo dobré” (That was good).

Grammatically, bylo/było functions as a copular or existential verb in the past tense. Its use is restricted to neuter subjects; masculine and feminine past forms are provided by other endings of the same verb (for example, Czech “byl” for masculine, “byla” for feminine; Polish “był” / “była”). The form also appears in neutral, general statements without an explicit subject, similar to the English impersonal “it was.”

Etymology and cognates trace back to Proto-Slavic *bytь, meaning “to be.” Related forms appear across Slavic languages, including Russian было, Ukrainian було, Polish było, Czech/Slovak bylo, all reflecting the same neuter past tense function.

In transliteration and cross-language references, bylo may appear as a Latinized representation of the Cyrillic по-было forms (for example, Russian было rendered as bylo in non-Cyrillic text). It is primarily a linguistic term and is not commonly used as a proper noun.