Breakdown of Что бы ни случилось, завтра я сварю борщ.
Questions & Answers about Что бы ни случилось, завтра я сварю борщ.
The phrase Что бы ни случилось is an introductory concessive clause (“no matter what happens”). In Russian, such introductory subordinate clauses are normally separated from the main clause by a comma:
- Что бы ни случилось, завтра я сварю борщ.
Main idea: “Tomorrow I will cook borscht,” regardless of the condition.
Что бы ни + verb is a common pattern meaning no matter what + verb / whatever + happens.
It’s made of:
- что = “what”
- бы = a particle often used in conditional/subjunctive-style constructions
- ни = an intensifying particle used in “no matter…” expressions
So Что бы ни случилось literally corresponds to “Whatever might happen / No matter what happens.”
No—this is a classic confusion.
- чтобы (one word) is usually a conjunction meaning in order to / so that:
Я пришёл, чтобы помочь. = “I came to help.” - что бы (two words) is typically что + бы, where бы is a separate particle, often in patterns like что бы ни… = “no matter what…”:
Что бы ни случилось… = “No matter what happens…”
A quick test: if you can insert another word between что and бы, it’s usually two words. Here you effectively have что (бы) ни… as a fixed “no matter what” construction, so it’s что бы.
In concessive/indefinite expressions like кто бы ни, что бы ни, где бы ни, Russian uses ни (not не) to mean no matter… / regardless of…:
- Что бы ни случилось… = “No matter what happens…”
- Где бы ни был… = “Wherever (no matter where) he is…”
не is regular negation (“not”), while ни often strengthens or generalizes (“not… at all / no matter which/what”).
Russian often uses a past tense perfective form after что бы ни… to express an open-ended hypothetical future result, similar to English “whatever happens.”
Here случилось is from случиться (perfective), and in this construction it doesn’t mean “whatever happened (in the past)”—it means “whatever may happen / whatever happens (as a completed event).”
So it’s a grammatical pattern: что бы ни + past perfective → “no matter what happens.”
случиться is perfective and focuses on an event as a whole (as something that “occurs/happens” as a single occurrence). In “no matter what happens,” Russian typically treats the “happening” as a complete event, hence perfective.
If you used the imperfective случаться, it would sound more like “no matter what tends to happen / whatever keeps happening,” which is a different nuance and not the standard set phrase.
сварю is the future form of a perfective verb (сварить). For perfective verbs, the “present” form actually has future meaning:
- я сварю = “I will cook/boil (and finish cooking)”
The perfective highlights a completed result: you’re committing to actually having the borscht cooked tomorrow.
(Compare: я буду варить = “I will be cooking” / focusing on the process.)
Yes, я can be omitted because Russian verb endings show the subject:
- …завтра сварю борщ. is grammatically fine.
Including я adds emphasis/contrast, like “I (personally) will cook borscht tomorrow,” which fits well with the determined tone of Что бы ни случилось.
Word order in Russian is flexible and often used for emphasis and flow.
завтра near the start sets the time frame early: “Tomorrow—regardless of anything—I’ll cook borscht.”
Other natural options include:
- Что бы ни случилось, я завтра сварю борщ. (slightly more focus on “I” first)
- Что бы ни случилось, сварю завтра борщ. (more stylistic; may emphasize the action/result)
All are possible; the original is very neutral and common.
сварить literally relates to boiling, but with foods like soups it commonly means to cook/make (by boiling). So сварю борщ is the normal everyday way to say I’ll make/cook borscht.
In normal speech:
- что is often reduced toward што (many speakers pronounce it like што)
- бы is unstressed and short (like “bih”)
- ни is also short and unstressed
- Stress: случИлось (stress on И)
So you’ll often hear something like: Што бы ни случИлось… (with reductions in unstressed syllables).