Breakdown of Никто не удивится этому решению.
не
not
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
никто
nobody
решение
decision
удивиться
to get surprised
Questions & Answers about Никто не удивится этому решению.
Why is it этому решению (Dative case)? The English translation says "surprised by", which usually suggests the Instrumental case.
This is a specific rule for certain verbs of emotion. In Russian, the verb удивляться (imperfective) or удивиться (perfective) requires the object causing the surprise to be in the Dative case, not the Instrumental. You can think of it as "giving your surprise to something."
Why does the sentence use both Никто (no one) and не (not)?
Russian strictly requires double negatives. Whenever you use a negative pronoun like никто (no one), никогда (never), or ничего (nothing), you must also place не directly before the verb. Literally, the sentence says "No one will not be surprised."
Why is удивится translated as future tense ("will be surprised") when there's no future tense helper verb like будет?
удивится is a perfective verb. When you conjugate a perfective verb using standard present-tense endings (like the -ит ending here), it automatically creates the future tense. You only use helper verbs like будет to form the future tense with imperfective verbs.
Why is the reflexive ending -ся necessary on удивится? Could I just say не удивит?
Without the reflexive -ся, the verb удивить means "to surprise [someone else]". By adding -ся, the action turns back onto the subject. So удивится means the subject themselves is experiencing the surprise ("will be/get surprised"). If you said никто не удивит, you'd be saying "no one will surprise [some unstated person]."
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