Breakdown of В этом абсолютно нет никакого смысла.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
нет
there is no / is not present
абсолютно
absolutely
никакой
not any / no kind of
смысл
sense / point (meaning)
Questions & Answers about В этом абсолютно нет никакого смысла.
Why are there two negative words (нет and никакого) in this sentence?
Russian strictly requires double negatives! In English, you say 'there is no sense', but in Russian, when you use a negative pronoun like никакой (no kind of), you must also negate the verb or predicate with не or нет. Literally, the sentence says 'in this there is not no kind of sense'.
Why are никакого and смысла in the genitive case?
They take the genitive case because of the word нет (there is not). Whenever you state that something does not exist or is absent using нет, the missing thing must be in the genitive case. Since смысл (sense) is a masculine noun, it becomes смысла, and its modifying pronoun никакой becomes никакого.
How do you pronounce the ending of никакого?
Even though it is spelled with a 'г' (g), the masculine and neuter genitive ending -ого is pronounced as if it were a 'в' (v). Therefore, никакого sounds like 'ни-ка-ко-во'. This is a standard pronunciation rule for adjectives and pronouns!
Why start with В этом (In this) rather than just saying 'This makes no sense'?
Russian expresses the concept of 'making sense' differently than English. You generally don't say that a situation 'makes' or 'has' sense. Instead, you say there is sense in a situation. That is why we use the preposition в (in) paired with the prepositional case этом (this).
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