"Were they victims?"

Translation: Ĉu ili estis viktimoj?

[nudpiedo]

I think in that context "victims" is an adjective, or it needs a preposition instead "Where they THE victims?" (victims is now a substantive) or instead "where they victims?" I understand victims is now an adjective, therefore "ĉu ili estis viktimaj?" should be the right answer.

[vikungen]

I think it is a noun in the English sentence (and also should be in the Esperanto) I tried imagining what it was in Norwegian and in the totally similar sentence it was a noun. Ĉu ili estis viktimoj is a less ambiguous and thus arguably better sentence than

Ĉu ili estis viktimaj

Viktimaj kio?

viktimaj ranoj? viktimaj policanoj?

[nudpiedo]

I think both are right, and it is ambiguous because I can ask you, who are the victims and were they victims referring as a noun. But I also can ask you if they were victims, being victim the status of a crime scene:

Are they green?
Are they victims?

[Siavel]

"Are they cows?" In this sentence, cows is still a noun, not an adjective.

The verb "to be" isn't exclusively used with adjectives in English, it can also be used with nouns.

[PatriciaJH]

No, you would say "were they the victims?" if they were all of the victims. If they are some of the victims, but not all of them, you say "were they victims?" And in that sentence, "victims" is definitely a noun. (Native speaker of English, New England variety.)

[LouisSepdekdu]

If it were an adjective, it wouldn't take the plural mark.