Breakdown of Wczoraj plotkowaliśmy o nich, ale to była prawda.
to
this
być
to be
ale
but
oni
they (masculine personal)
Questions & Answers about Wczoraj plotkowaliśmy o nich, ale to była prawda.
Why do we use nich here instead of ich or oni for "them"?
The preposition o (meaning "about") requires the Locative case. The Locative form of the pronoun "they" (oni or one) is nich. So, "about them" is always o nich.
Does plotkowaliśmy tell us who is in the "we" group?
Yes! The -liśmy ending shows this is the masculine-personal past tense, meaning the "we" group includes at least one male. If a group of only females were gossiping, they would use the non-masculine form plotkowałyśmy.
Why is the verb feminine in to była prawda if to means "it"?
When using the pattern "to + was + [noun]", the past tense of the verb "to be" must match the gender of the noun that comes after it, not the pronoun to. Since prawda (truth) is a feminine noun, you must use the feminine verb była.
I know the noun plotka means "gossip". Is that where the verb comes from?
Exactly! You can often create verbs from Polish nouns by adding the ending -ować. The noun plotka becomes the infinitive verb plotkować (to gossip), which is conjugated here in the past tense.