Search:

Thanks Soft sign. So it's not a simple nominative-predicate-accusative situation. Got it. It's quite a quirky bit of grammar, but what you said makes sense.

Thank you iCake

That was what I was thinking, it's good to know that a native speaker sees it that way too. I think I confused everybody yesterday, not just Lampada, but other people oline and in...

Okay, I think we are not understanding each other here somehow.

'это была ничья'... In this sentence, ничья is nominative, yes?
That was part of what I was asking, although I can see now the...

Thanks, Lampada.

So, this is like saying 'ничья была это', ie 'draw (nominative) was it (accusative.)' Is that right?
Or are you saying that была is used because most things that are capable of...

'It was a draw' in English (ie the match was a draw) seems to translate as 'это была ничья' according to reverso context website. This is really odd. Why это and then была? Why not был? Is this just...