Quote Originally Posted by chaika
Unfortunately, instrumental always after быть not. (Saw the latest Star Wars recently I did.) I remember reading something like... в то время он был начальник теха.... This might not be exactly the correct context, but I remember I was impressed by the fact that it was NOT instrumental. (I can probly look it up in my reader if Friendy insists! But I'm sure she can come up with the right context =;^) )
Yes, that's true, nominative also is used (though only in the past tense as far as I know). Using instrumental would be also correct here and maybe even more preferable. I think there was a thread here, where we discussed the subtle and usually insignificant difference in sense depending on the used case. So if you doubt what case to use, use instrumental and you won't be mistaken.