Learn Hardcore Russian: Я никогда не забуду этот день.

In Russian, negative concord requires pairing a negative adverb or pronoun like никогда (never) with the negation particle не before the verb. You cannot say Я никогда забуду; the correct form is Я никогда не забуду to mean “I will never forget.”

What part of speech is никогда, and where does it usually appear in the sentence?

никогда is an adverb of time meaning “never.” It most naturally appears just before the verb: никогда не забуду. You can move it for emphasis—Я не забуду этот день никогда—but that word order is less common.

What tense and aspect is забуду, and how would the imperfective future differ?

забуду is first‑person singular future tense of the perfective verb забыть (“to forget completely”). Perfective verbs form a simple future: я забуду. The imperfective забывать uses a compound future: я буду забывать, which implies an ongoing or repeated action (“I will be forgetting”).

Why is этот день in the accusative case, and why does it look like the nominative?

этот день is the direct object of забуду, so it takes the accusative. Since день is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative. If it were animate, the accusative would match the genitive.

Can you drop the pronoun я here? Why or why not?

Yes. Russian is a pro‑drop language, so you can omit я because the verb ending -у in забуду already indicates the first person singular. Никогда не забуду этот день is perfectly natural.

Why use the perfective verb забыть instead of the imperfective забывать in this sentence?

The perfective забыть focuses on the completion of the action (“to forget at a point in time”). It fits promises like “I will never forget.” The imperfective забывать would suggest a habitual or ongoing process (“to be forgetting”), which doesn’t match the meaning here.

How would you ask “Will you ever forget this day?” in Russian?

You replace никогда (“never”) with когда-нибудь (“ever, sometime”) and use the perfective future:
Ты когда-нибудь забудешь этот день?

How would you say “I have never forgotten this day” in Russian?

Use the imperfective past tense:
Я никогда не забывал этот день (if you identify as male) or
Я никогда не забывала этот день (if female).
Russian often employs the imperfective past to cover English’s present perfect.

Where are the stress marks in никогда and забуду?

In никогда the stress is on the second syllable: ни КО гда. In забуду it’s also on the second syllable: за БУ ду.

Does этот день necessarily mean “today,” or could it refer to something else?

этот день means “this day” in the sense of a particular important day (wedding day, holiday, etc.), not specifically “today.” To say “today,” you use сегодня.