Например: «Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, мама остаётся рядом».

It creates a concessive meaning: no matter how ..., however much ..., or regardless of how ....

So in Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, мама остаётся рядом, the first clause sets up something that does not change the result in the main clause. In other words, the child’s crying does not affect the fact that the mother stays near.

This pattern is very common in Russian:

• Что бы он ни говорил, я не поверю.
• Где бы они ни жили, мы их найдём.
• Как бы трудно ни было, нужно продолжать.

A useful way to recognize it is:

• question word: как, что, где, когда, кто etc.
• бы
• ни
• then the rest of the clause

It often corresponds to English no matter how / what / where / when / who.

In this construction, бы and ни normally work together.

• бы gives a hypothetical or generalized flavor
• ни marks the concessive idea: no matter...

So Как бы ребёнок ни плакал is the normal full pattern.

If you remove ни, the sentence becomes ungrammatical for this meaning.

If you remove бы, you may get a different construction, for example Как ни плакал ребёнок..., which is possible, but it feels somewhat different. It often sounds more tied to a specific real situation, something like however much the child cried. With бы, the statement feels more general: no matter how much the child may cry.

So for learners, the safest rule is: if you want the standard no matter how meaning, keep both бы and ни.

This is one of the trickier points.

In Russian, after бы, verbs often appear in the past-tense form, but that does not necessarily mean real past time. Here плакал is part of a grammatical pattern, not a literal past-time statement.

So Как бы ребёнок ни плакал does not mean no matter how the child cried in the past. It means something more like:

• no matter how much the child cries
• no matter how much the child may cry
• however much the child cries

This is similar to how English sometimes uses forms that are not purely about time, but also about mood or hypothesis.

So here:

• плакал = past-form shape
• actual meaning = general, non-past, concessive

Because it agrees with ребёнок.

The noun ребёнок is grammatically:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the past-tense verb must match it:

• ребёнок плакал
• not ребёнок плакала
• not ребёнок плакали

Even if the child is a girl in real life, the noun ребёнок is still grammatically masculine, so the verb stays masculine singular.

Because плакать is imperfective, and that fits the meaning much better.

Here the sentence is about the degree or ongoing nature of crying: however much the child cries. That naturally calls for an imperfective verb.

Compare:

• плакать = to cry, to be crying, to cry repeatedly or for some time
• заплакать = to start crying

So:

• Как бы ребёнок ни плакал... = no matter how much the child cries
• Как бы ребёнок ни заплакал... would sound odd, because start crying is not really what the sentence is focusing on

The construction with как often works best with verbs that can express extent, manner, or ongoing action.

Yes, Как бы ни плакал ребёнок is also possible.

Both are grammatical:

• Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, мама остаётся рядом.
• Как бы ни плакал ребёнок, мама остаётся рядом.

The difference is mostly about focus and rhythm, not core meaning.

Very roughly:

• Как бы ребёнок ни плакал... puts the subject ребёнок a bit earlier and may highlight the child
• Как бы ни плакал ребёнок... sounds slightly more compact and may feel a bit more neutral or literary

For a learner, both are worth recognizing. The important thing is that ни stays closely tied to the verb phrase in this pattern.

No. Here ни is not simple negation.

In a sentence like Я не плачу, the negation is не.

But in Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, the particle ни is part of the fixed concessive pattern как бы ... ни. It does not mean the child does not cry.

So you should not read it as a negative clause. Instead, read it as:

• no matter how the child cries
• however much the child cries

This is a very important distinction, because learners often see ни and assume it must mean something negative by itself.

Because the sentence has two clauses:

1. Как бы ребёнок ни плакал — subordinate concessive clause
2. мама остаётся рядом — main clause

Russian normally separates a subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma.

So the comma here is required:

• Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, мама остаётся рядом.

Also, if you include Например before it, the punctuation depends on how it is introduced. In your version, Например: introduces an example, so the colon makes sense before the quoted example.

Here рядом works as an adverb meaning nearby or close by.

So:

• мама остаётся рядом = the mother remains nearby / stays close

You do not need to add anything after рядом if the meaning is already clear.

But рядом can also be used with a complement:

• рядом с ребёнком = next to the child / by the child’s side

In that case, it takes с + instrumental:

• рядом с мамой
• рядом с домом
• рядом с ребёнком

So in your sentence, the shorter form рядом is perfectly natural because the context already implies by the child’s side.

Because мама is the natural everyday word here.

• мама = mom / мама, warm and personal
• мать = mother, more formal, neutral, or sometimes stylistically heavier

In a sentence about a child crying, мама sounds much more natural and emotionally appropriate.

Compare:

• мама остаётся рядом — warm, ordinary, human
• мать остаётся рядом — more formal, detached, or literary

So this is mainly a question of style and tone, not grammar.

Yes. That would be grammatical, but the nuance would change.

• мама остаётся рядом sounds like a general truth, a typical pattern, or a present-tense statement
• мама останется рядом sounds more like a future result in a particular situation: the mother will stay nearby

So:

• Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, мама остаётся рядом = a general, timeless statement
• Как бы ребёнок ни плакал, мама останется рядом = more like a promise or prediction about what will happen

Both are possible, but the original sentence feels more like a general observation.