Breakdown of Ничто меня не удивляет, даже это событие.
не
not
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
даже
even
ничто
nothing (nominative)
удивлять
to surprise
событие
event
Questions & Answers about Ничто меня не удивляет, даже это событие.
Why do we need не if we already have Ничто? Doesn't that mean "Nothing does not surprise me"?
Russian requires a double negative. When you use a negative pronoun like ничто (nothing), you must also put не before the verb. In English, two negatives cancel out, but in Russian, they work together to make the sentence negative.
Why use Ничто here instead of the much more common word ничего?
Ничто is in the Nominative case, meaning it is the subject of the sentence (the "Nothing" is doing the surprising). Ничего is the Genitive or Accusative form, which you use when "nothing" is the object receiving an action.
Why is меня placed before не удивляет? Could I say Ничто не удивляет меня?
You can absolutely say Ничто не удивляет меня, as Russian word order is flexible. However, placing the object pronoun (меня) before the verb is a very common and natural habit in Russian.
If this sentence were in the past tense, what gender would the verb take to match Ничто?
Why is it это событие and not этот событие?
The noun событие (event) ends in -е, which makes it a neuter noun. Therefore, the demonstrative pronoun ("this") must match it by using the neuter form это, rather than the masculine form этот.
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