Breakdown of Моя семья никогда ничего не празднует заранее.
не
not
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
семья
family
ничего
nothing
никогда
never
заранее
in advance
праздновать
to celebrate
Questions & Answers about Моя семья никогда ничего не празднует заранее.
Why are there three negative words (никогда, ничего, не) in this sentence?
In Russian, double or even triple negatives are completely normal and required. If you use negative words like никогда (never) and ничего (anything/nothing), you must still put не (not) right before the verb. Literally, this sentence says 'My family never nothing does not celebrate.'
The dictionary form for 'to celebrate' is праздновать. Why does it change to празднует here?
Verbs ending in -овать or -евать drop the -ова- or -ева- part and replace it with -у- in the present tense. So праздновать becomes the stem праздну- plus the singular ending -ет.
Since a family has multiple people, shouldn't the verb be in the plural form (празднуют)?
Even though a family consists of many people, the word семья itself is a singular feminine noun. Therefore, the verb must also be in the singular form (празднует), just like in English where we say 'my family celebrates' rather than 'my family celebrate'.
Why is ничего spelled with a 'г' but pronounced with a 'в' sound?
The word ничего is the genitive case form of ничто (nothing). In Russian, the grammatical endings -его and -ого are always pronounced with a 'v' sound instead of a 'g' sound.
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