Questions & Answers about To było małe plemię.
Why does plemię end in -ę if it's a neuter noun? Don't they usually end in -o or -e?
While most neuter nouns end in -o or -e, there is a special group of neuter nouns that end in -ę. Common examples include plemię (tribe), imię (name), and zwierzę (animal). In this sentence, the noun is in the nominative case, which simply uses that base -ę ending.
If plemię is what 'this' was, shouldn't it be in the instrumental case?
Usually, yes! When saying 'X is Y', the Y noun normally takes the instrumental case. However, when the subject of the sentence is the simple demonstrative pronoun to (meaning 'this' or 'it'), the noun that follows stays in the nominative case. That is why we say To było małe plemię instead of using the instrumental małym plemieniem.
Why are we using było and małe in this sentence?
Both the verb and the adjective must agree with the grammatical gender of the noun. Since plemię is neuter, the past tense of być takes the neuter form było, and the adjective mały takes its neuter singular form małe.
I know words like imię change their stem in other cases. Does plemię do this too?
Yes, almost all neuter nouns ending in -ę expand their core stem when declining into most other cases. Just like imię expands to imieni- or imion-, plemię expands to plemieni- or plemion-. For example, if you wanted to say 'of a small tribe' in the genitive case, it would be małego plemienia.
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