Breakdown of Bilo da je muškarac bilo da je žena, nastaviće.
Questions & Answers about Bilo da je muškarac bilo da je žena, nastaviće.
It is a correlative construction meaning whether ... or ....
So:
- bilo da je muškarac
- bilo da je žena
together mean whether he/she is a man or a woman.
Repeating bilo da on both sides is normal and makes the two alternatives sound balanced.
Not really in the way a learner might first think.
By itself, bilo can be a past form related to biti. But in bilo da, the whole expression functions as a fixed conjunction-like phrase meaning whether.
So in this sentence, do not interpret bilo as it was. The actual time reference comes from nastaviće, which is future.
Da introduces a subordinate clause.
In Serbian, after expressions like bilo da, you normally get a full clause with a finite verb:
- da je muškarac
- da je žena
Literally, these are like that he/she is a man and that he/she is a woman, but in this pattern the natural English meaning is whether he/she is a man or a woman.