Breakdown of Ludzie w biurze plotkują, że dyrektor ma romans.
mieć
to have
ludzie
people
w
in / on (a day)
biuro
office
dyrektor
director
że
that
plotkować
to gossip
romans
affair
Questions & Answers about Ludzie w biurze plotkują, że dyrektor ma romans.
How does the tense of ma work here since this is reported speech?
In Polish reported speech with że (that), you never backshift the tense like you often do in English. You keep the exact tense of the original quote. Since the original rumor was 'The director is having an affair' (present tense), Polish keeps the present tense ma. Even if the gossip happened in the past (Ludzie plotkowali), the second part would stay że dyrektor ma romans.
Does romans just mean a romance or love story?
It can mean a romance novel or genre, but in a real-life context like ma romans, it translates specifically to having a romantic affair.
Why does the word for office (biuro) change to biurze?
The preposition w (in) takes the locative case to describe a location. For neuter nouns ending in -o, the locative ending is -e. Adding -e causes the final consonant of the stem to soften, so the r in biuro changes to rz, making it w biurze.
I know the infinitive is plotkować (to gossip). Why does it look so different here?
This is a classic -ować verb. In the present tense, the -owa- part always changes to -uj-. Since the subject is ludzie (they), you add the third-person plural ending -ą, which gives you plotkują.
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