Breakdown of Он всё отрицает и не признаёт никакой вины.
и
and
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
весь
all, the whole, everything, everyone (весь, вся, всё, все)
никакой
not any / no kind of
отрицать
to deny
признавать
to admit / to acknowledge
вина
guilt / fault
Questions & Answers about Он всё отрицает и не признаёт никакой вины.
The English translation says "any guilt." Doesn't никакой actually mean "no"?
Yes, никакой literally means "no" or "no kind of." Russian requires double negation, meaning if you use a negative word like никакой, you must also negate the verb with не. Literally, this sentence says "does not admit no guilt." In English, this double negative translates naturally to "does not admit any guilt."
Why does the sentence use the genitive никакой вины instead of the accusative?
In Russian, the direct object of a negated verb often takes the genitive case instead of the accusative, especially with abstract nouns like вина (guilt). Because the noun is in the genitive case, the negative pronoun никакой must match it, taking the feminine genitive form никакой.
Could we use ничьей (from ничей) here instead of никакой?
Not if you want to keep the same meaning. Ничей (nobody's) denies possession, so не признаёт ничьей вины would mean he doesn't admit anyone's guilt (meaning he thinks no one is to blame). Никакой denies the existence of the thing itself, which is what we want here: he doesn't admit that any guilt exists at all.
Why is the verb признаёт missing the -ва- found in its infinitive признавать?
Verbs ending in -знавать, -давать, and -ставать are a special group that drop their -ва- suffix when conjugated in the present tense. Therefore, признавать (to admit) conjugates as я признаю, ты признаёшь, он признаёт, and so on.
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