Learn Hardcore German: Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem, aber sie hilft uns, Beziehungen ehrlich und friedlich zu halten. - The truth is sometimes uncomfortable, but it helps us keep relationships honest and peaceful.

Wahrheit (truth) is feminine, so it always takes the article die in the nominative singular: die Wahrheit.
In other cases you’ll see forms like der Wahrheit (dative/genitive), but the basic dictionary form is die Wahrheit.

There is no logical reason why Wahrheit is feminine; it’s just part of the word’s identity, like its meaning or pronunciation. When you learn new vocabulary, it helps to learn it with its article:
die Wahrheit, der Tisch, das Problem, etc.

What does the pronoun sie refer to here, and why is it sie and not es?

The sie in aber sie hilft uns refers back to die Wahrheit.

die Wahrheit is grammatically feminine
The corresponding 3rd‑person singular pronoun for feminine nouns is sie (she/it), not es (it for neuter nouns)

So:

die Wahrheit → sie (feminine singular)
das Problem → es (neuter singular)
der Mann → er (masculine singular)

Also, note that this sie is not the formal Sie (you). The formal Sie is always capitalized. Here it’s lowercase, so it can only mean she or it (feminine singular), and context shows it means “the truth.”

Why is there a comma before aber?

The comma is there because aber joins two independent main clauses:

Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem
sie hilft uns, Beziehungen ehrlich und friedlich zu halten

In German, when a coordinating conjunction like aber, und, oder, denn, sondern connects two full clauses (each with its own conjugated verb), you normally put a comma before it:

Ich bin müde, aber ich gehe zur Arbeit.
Er wollte kommen, aber er hatte keine Zeit.

So Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem, aber sie hilft uns … follows this rule.

Why is it uns and not wir after hilft?

Because helfen takes the dative case, and uns is the dative form of wir.

Personal pronoun forms:

wir = we (nominative, subject)
uns = us (dative or accusative, object)

The verb helfen always uses a dative object:

Sie hilft uns. – She/It helps us.
Er hilft mir. – He helps me.
Kannst du ihnen helfen? – Can you help them?

So in sie hilft uns, sie is the subject (nominative), and uns is the indirect object in the dative, required by helfen.

How does the structure … hilft uns, Beziehungen ehrlich und friedlich zu halten work?

This is a zu + infinitive construction, roughly “helps us to keep relationships honest and peaceful.”

Breakdown:

sie hilft uns – it (the truth) helps us
Beziehungen … zu halten – (to) keep relationships …
ehrlich und friedlich – honest and peaceful (the state in which we keep them)

So the full idea is:

The truth helps us to keep relationships honest and peaceful.

In German:

The infinitive halten goes to the end of the phrase.
zu appears directly before the infinitive: zu halten.
There is a comma before the infinitive clause (…, Beziehungen … zu halten). With this kind of infinitive phrase, the comma is optional in modern spelling, but often used for clarity, especially in longer sentences.

Pattern to remember:
… hilft jemandem, etwas zu tun. – … helps someone to do something.

Why don’t ehrlich and friedlich have adjective endings here?

Because here they are not directly in front of a noun; they are used predicatively, describing the state of Beziehungen after the verb halten.

Compare:

adjectives before a noun (with endings):
- ehrliche Beziehungen – honest relationships
- friedliche Beziehungen – peaceful relationships
adjectives after a verb like sein/werden/bleiben/finden/halten (no endings):
- Beziehungen sind ehrlich. – Relationships are honest.
- Wir halten die Beziehungen ehrlich. – We keep the relationships honest.

In Beziehungen ehrlich und friedlich zu halten, the adjectives describe how the relationships are kept, so they behave like predicative adjectives and appear in their base form:

ehrlich (not ehrliche)
friedlich (not friedliche)

Why is Beziehungen plural and why is there no article?

Two points:

Plural:
Using plural Beziehungen (relationships) makes the statement general: all kinds of relationships (friendships, family, romantic, work, etc.). It doesn’t refer to one specific relationship.
No article:
In German, plural nouns without an article often express a general idea:
- Menschen brauchen Ruhe. – People need rest.
- Freunde sind wichtig. – Friends are important.
- Beziehungen sind kompliziert. – Relationships are complicated.

Here, … hilft uns, Beziehungen ehrlich und friedlich zu halten means “to keep relationships honest and peaceful in general.” If you said:

… hilft uns, die Beziehungen ehrlich und friedlich zu halten.

you would be talking about specific relationships already known from the context.

What is the nuance of unbequem here? Why not unangenehm?

Both unbequem and unangenehm can be translated as uncomfortable or unpleasant, but there are nuances:

unbequem
- literal: physically uncomfortable (a chair, shoes, a bed)
- figurative: inconvenient, troublesome, awkward (truth, questions, facts)
unangenehm
- generally unpleasant, awkward, embarrassing, or causing discomfort (a smell, a situation, a feeling)

When we say Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem, the idea is:

The truth is inconvenient / awkward / makes life harder.
It can force us to confront things we don’t want to see.

You could also say Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unangenehm; that would emphasize that the truth feels unpleasant. Unbequem highlights that it doesn’t “fit” nicely into our plans or comfort zone, which is a common collocation with Wahrheit.

Could I say Manchmal ist die Wahrheit unbequem instead? Is the word order important?

Yes, you can absolutely say:

Manchmal ist die Wahrheit unbequem, aber …

This is also perfectly correct. Both:

Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem …
Manchmal ist die Wahrheit unbequem …

are natural. The difference is just emphasis:

Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem …
– neutral; focus is slightly more on die Wahrheit as the topic.
Manchmal ist die Wahrheit unbequem …
– starts by highlighting sometimes; emphasizes that it’s not always like this, but in some cases.

German adverbs of time like manchmal, oft, heute, morgen can appear at the beginning of the clause or in the “middle field” (usually after the verb or subject), and both positions are common.

Could I replace aber with doch or jedoch? Would that change the meaning?

You could, with small differences in tone:

aber (most neutral here)
- Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem, aber sie hilft uns …
  – “The truth is sometimes uncomfortable, but it helps us …”
  – simple contrast, very common in speech and writing.
doch
- Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem, doch sie hilft uns …
  – more literary/formal, often used in written style.
  – also expresses contrast, sometimes with a slight nuance of “still / nevertheless.”
jedoch
- Die Wahrheit ist manchmal unbequem; sie hilft uns jedoch, …
  – jedoch is typically used more like an adverb inside the second clause, often after a semicolon or full stop.
  – quite formal, often seen in academic or official texts.

All three can express the same basic idea, but aber is the most natural, neutral choice in everyday language.