Learn Hardcore Russian: Некоторые вопросы повторяются из года в год, но каждый раз выводы всё равно немного другие. - Some questions are repeated from year to year, but each time the conclusions are still a bit different.

Некоторые вопросы means “some (of the questions)”, usually from a known or at least mentally defined group. It’s neutral and a bit more “orderly” or logical.

Какие-то вопросы also means “some questions”, but it sounds more vague, random, or even dismissive, like “some questions or other” / “these random questions.”

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about specific, recognizable questions that keep coming up every year, so Некоторые вопросы is more natural.
Какие-то вопросы would slightly weaken the idea that we know which questions we are talking about.

Why is the verb повторяются used with -ся? Who is repeating what here?

The subject is вопросы (questions), so literally:

Некоторые вопросы повторяются… = “Some questions repeat (themselves)…”
→ natural English: “Some questions are repeated…” or “Some questions come up again…”

The verb повторяться is the intransitive/reflexive form of повторять:

повторять (что?) — to repeat something
повторяться — to be repeated, to recur

Russian often uses the -ся form where English would use a passive:
вопросы повторяются ≈ “questions are repeated / keep recurring.”

Why is повторяются (imperfective present) used, not a perfective form like повторятся or повторятся снова?

The verb here is повторяются from повторяться (imperfective).

Imperfective is used because the sentence describes:

a recurring, habitual action (this happens every year),
an open‑ended process, not a single finished event.

Perfective повториться would describe a single instance of repeating, usually in the future or as a one‑off:

Вопрос повторится ещё раз. – “The question will be repeated once more.”

But here it’s about a pattern over time (“year after year”), so повторяются (imperfective) is required.

What does the phrase из года в год literally mean, and how is it different from каждый год?

Literally:

из года в год = “from year into year”

Grammatically:

из takes the genitive → из года
в (direction) takes the accusative → в год

Meaning and nuance:

из года в год – “from year to year”, “year after year”;
expresses monotony, continuity, and persistence of the situation.
каждый год – “every year”;
more neutral, just says it happens annually.

You can say:

Некоторые вопросы повторяются каждый год…

But из года в год emphasizes the long‑term, almost tiresome repetition more strongly.

Why is there a comma before но?

Because но joins two independent clauses (each with its own subject and verb):

Некоторые вопросы повторяются из года в год,
(но) каждый раз выводы всё равно немного другие.

In Russian, when но connects full clauses, a comma is obligatory.
This is parallel to English: “Some questions repeat year after year, but each time the conclusions are still a bit different.”

What exactly does каждый раз mean, and how is it different from каждый год?

Каждый раз literally means “every time”:

каждый – “every, each”
раз – “time, occasion”

So the second part says:

но каждый раз выводы… – “but each time the conclusions are…”

This focuses on each occurrence of the situation, not just each year as a calendar unit.

Contrast:

каждый год – “every year” (once per year, on the timeline)
каждый раз – “every time (this happens)” (each instance of the event or process)

Here каждый раз ties to “whenever we face these questions again,” not strictly to the year itself.

What does выводы mean in this context, and why is it plural?

Вывод (singular) = “conclusion, inference, deduction.”
Выводы (plural) = “conclusions.”

In Russian, when talking about the result of analysis, reasoning, research, discussion, etc., it’s very common to use the plural:

сделать выводы – “to draw conclusions”
наши выводы оказались неверными – “our conclusions turned out to be wrong”

Here:

выводы всё равно немного другие
= “the conclusions are still a bit different.”

Plural suggests several aspects of the conclusion, e.g. different points, insights, or summaries.
You could say вывод всё равно немного другой, but that would sound like there is one final, single conclusion.

How should I understand всё равно here? Is it “still”, “anyway”, or “nevertheless”? How is it different from всё ещё?

Всё равно is a fixed phrase. Here it means something like:

“still”
“anyway”
“all the same”
“nevertheless (in a casual tone)”

So:

…но каждый раз выводы всё равно немного другие.
≈ “but each time the conclusions are still / nevertheless a bit different.”

Nuances:

всё равно – emphasizes inevitability / in spite of everything.
→ Even though the questions repeat, the conclusions end up different anyway.
всё ещё – means “still” in the sense of “still not yet changed / still continuing”.
For example, Он всё ещё спит. – “He is still sleeping.”

So всё ещё does not work here; we’re not saying the conclusions are “still different” in the sense of continuing state, but rather “end up different anyway, despite the repetition.”

Why is всё in всё равно written with ё, and how is that different from все?

всё (with ё) – neuter form of “all / everything”; also used in fixed expressions like всё равно.
все (with е) – plural “all (people/things)”.

Pronunciation:

всё – [vsʲо]
все – [fsʲe]

In всё равно, the phrase is set; it must be всё, never все.

Meaning-wise, you don’t usually analyze всё равно as “everything equal” in everyday speech; it functions as a single adverbial expression meaning “anyway, regardless, it makes no difference / all the same.”

Why does другие here mean “different”? Isn’t другой usually “other”?

Другой primarily means “other, another”, but very often in Russian “other” in context overlaps with “different”, just like in English:

“other conclusions” = “different conclusions (not the same as before).”

In this sentence:

выводы немного другие
literally: “the conclusions are a bit other”
natural: “the conclusions are a bit different.”

Compare with разные:

разные выводы – “various / differing conclusions (from each other).”
другие выводы – “other / different conclusions (compared to some previous or expected ones).”

Here we are comparing current conclusions with previous ones, so другие is the right choice.

What is the role of немного before другие? Could we use слегка or чуть-чуть instead?

Немного = “a little, somewhat, slightly.”

In немного другие, it softens the adjective:

другие – different
немного другие – a bit different, slightly different

You can also say:

слегка другие – slightly different (a bit more formal / bookish)
чуть-чуть другие – a tiny bit different (more colloquial, very informal)

All three are possible here, but немного is the most neutral and common in written style.

Is the word order in the second clause fixed? Could I say но выводы каждый раз всё равно немного другие instead?

Russian word order is fairly flexible, and several variants are acceptable. For example:

…но каждый раз выводы всё равно немного другие. (original)
…но выводы каждый раз всё равно немного другие.
…но выводы всё равно каждый раз немного другие.

All are grammatically correct. The differences are about rhythm and emphasis:

Starting with каждый раз (version 1) emphasizes “each time” as the contrast:
despite the repetition, each time the result is different.
Starting with выводы (version 2) emphasizes the conclusions as the main topic.

The original word order is very natural and keeps a good rhythm in written Russian.

Why are вопросы, выводы, and другие all in the plural? Could we say другое?

вопросы – plural of вопрос (“question”)
выводы – plural of вывод (“conclusion”)
другие – plural form of другой (“other / different”)

Другие agrees in gender, number, and case with выводы:

выводы (какие?) другие – plural, nominative, masculine inanimate

If you said другое, that would be singular neuter and would not match выводы:

выводы другое – ungrammatical.

You could recast the idea with a singular, for example:

но каждый раз итог всё равно немного другой.
“but each time the result is still a bit different.”

Here итог is singular → другой (singular masculine) is used.

Which cases are used in из года в год, and why does год change to года in the first part?

In из года в год:

из года – из takes the genitive case.
год → года (genitive singular).
в год – в (with motion/direction “into”) usually takes the accusative.
Here год stays год (accusative singular = nominative singular for masculine inanimate).

So the structure is:

из (genitive) в (accusative) – literally “from year into year.”

Год is one of those nouns where the genitive singular is года, not года by adding -а to the base, but effectively:
год (nom.) → года (gen.).