Breakdown of To była długa kłótnia z moim nowym sąsiadem.
to
this
być
to be
nowy
new
mój
my
z
with
sąsiad
neighbor
długi
long
kłótnia
the argument
Questions & Answers about To była długa kłótnia z moim nowym sąsiadem.
Why is the phrase at the end z moim nowym sąsiadem instead of "z mój nowy sąsiad"?
The preposition z meaning "with" requires the following words to be in the Instrumental case. The masculine noun sąsiad (neighbor) takes the -em ending to become sąsiadem. The words describing him also change to their Instrumental forms: mój becomes moim, and nowy becomes nowym.
Why is the verb była used here when the sentence starts with the neuter word to? Shouldn't it be "to było"?
When you use the structure "To był/była/było [noun]" (It was a [noun]), the past tense verb must match the gender of the noun that follows it, not the pronoun to. Because kłótnia (argument) is a feminine noun, the verb has to be the feminine była.
This lesson is about reciprocal verbs with się. How does the word kłótnia fit in?
Kłótnia (argument) is the noun form of the reciprocal verb kłócić się (to argue / to quarrel). Just like you use z + Instrumental after the verb (e.g., kłócę się z sąsiadem - I am arguing with the neighbor), you use the exact same pattern after the noun.
Why do the words describing the neighbor end differently (moim vs nowym) if they are in the exact same case?
In the masculine Instrumental case, the standard adjective ending is -ym (like nowym). However, if the word stem ends in a soft sound, a vowel (like mój), or the letters -k or -g, the ending softens to -im. That is why we use moim instead of "mojm" or "moym".
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