Learn French: Il a quitté le village lugubre sans toucher quoi que ce soit. - He left the gloomy village without touching anything at all.

Quoi que ce soit means "anything at all" or "whatever it may be." While sans rien toucher (without touching anything) is grammatically correct and very common, using quoi que ce soit adds strong emphasis. It highlights that he didn't touch a single thing, no matter what it was.

Doesn't quoi que ce soit usually need a negative word like ne?

It often does, but here the preposition sans (without) already provides the negative context. Just like in English where we say "without touching anything" rather than "something", French uses quoi que ce soit after sans to mean "anything at all" without needing an extra ne.

Why is it sans toucher (infinitive) and not a present participle like "without touching" in English?

In French, prepositions like sans, pour, and de are always followed by the infinitive form of a verb, never by a present participle (the -ant form). So "without touching" must always be constructed as sans plus the infinitive toucher.

Could I use partir instead of quitter to mean "he left"?