Breakdown of На экскурсии ни студенты, ни гости не задавали вопросов.
на
on
не
not
вопрос
the question
гость
the guest
Questions & Answers about На экскурсии ни студенты, ни гости не задавали вопросов.
What does the construction ни студенты, ни гости mean in English?
It uses the correlative conjunction neither … nor …, so ни студенты, ни гости translates as neither the students nor the guests.
Why are студенты and гости in the nominative case, and why does ни appear before each noun?
They are the sentence’s subjects and thus take the nominative case. In Russian the pair ни … ни … requires placing ни before each element you want to join in a “neither … nor …” construction.
Why is вопросов in the genitive plural rather than the accusative?
In negative sentences Russian often uses the partitive or “genitive of negation” for indefinite objects. Instead of не задавали вопросы (accusative) you say не задавали вопросов to mean did not ask any questions.
What function does На экскурсии serve, and why is it in the prepositional case?
This phrase is an adverbial modifier indicating the setting or context (during the tour). The preposition на with the noun экскурсия takes the prepositional singular экскурсии.
Why is there a double negative— plus ? Doesn’t double negation cancel out?