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.

Because each alternative is its own clause.

• bilo da je muškarac
• bilo da je žena

Here je is the 3rd person singular present of biti, meaning is.

Serbian repeats the verb because the structure is really:

• whether he/she is a man
• whether he/she is a woman

English sometimes feels more compact, but Serbian often keeps both clauses fully expressed.

Because bilo da ... bilo da ... already does the job of whether ... or ....

So Serbian does not need ili in this version. The repeated bilo da itself marks the alternative.

You may also hear structures like bilo da je muškarac ili žena, which are also common, but the repeated version is especially clear and symmetrical.

They are in the nominative because they are predicate nouns after je.

Compare:

• On je muškarac
• Ona je žena

So in the sentence, the same pattern appears inside the subordinate clauses:

• je muškarac
• je žena

For a learner, the key point is that after biti in sentences like this, Serbian normally uses the nominative.

Because Serbian has no articles like a, an, or the.

So:

• muškarac can mean a man or the man
• žena can mean a woman or the woman

The exact meaning depends on context. English needs an article; Serbian does not.

The subject is understood from context.

Serbian very often drops subject pronouns when they are not necessary. The verb form already tells you it is 3rd person singular:

• nastaviće = he/she/it will continue

So Serbian does not need to say on or ona unless the speaker wants emphasis or contrast.

No.

Nastaviće only shows:

• future tense
• 3rd person
• singular

It does not show gender. So the same form can mean:

• he will continue
• she will continue
• sometimes it will continue

Gender has to be understood from context.

Nastaviće is future I, 3rd person singular, from nastaviti.

It means will continue.

In standard Serbian spelling, these future forms are written as one word:

• nastaviću
• nastavićeš
• nastaviće
• nastavićemo
• nastavićete

So nastaviće is the normal written Serbian form.

Because the bilo da ... bilo da ... part is a subordinate clause placed before the main clause.

So the structure is:

• subordinate clause: Bilo da je muškarac bilo da je žena
• main clause: nastaviće

The comma separates them, just as English often separates an introductory clause from the main clause.

Yes. Serbian offers a few natural alternatives, for example:

• Bilo da je muškarac ili žena, nastaviće.
• Bez obzira da li je muškarac ili žena, nastaviće.

The version with repeated bilo da is perfectly normal and slightly more formal or rhetorically balanced. It emphasizes that either option leads to the same result.