Breakdown of Кто-то сделал ошибку, но в этом нет ничьей вины.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
нет
there is no / is not present
ошибка
mistake
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
но
but
кто-то
someone
вина
guilt / fault
ничей
nobody's
Questions & Answers about Кто-то сделал ошибку, но в этом нет ничьей вины.
Why is the pronoun ничьей in the genitive case here?
It is modifying the noun вины (fault), which is in the genitive case because it comes after the negative word нет (there is no). The dictionary form of the pronoun is ничей (nobody's), and its feminine genitive form is ничьей.
Does Russian use a double negative in this sentence?
Yes! In Russian, when you use a negative pronoun like ничей, you generally still need a negative verb or word in the sentence. Here, the word нет acts as that required negative, so literally the phrase translates to 'in this there is no nobody's fault'.
Why use в этом нет instead of just saying это не for 'it is not'?
A more literal translation of в этом нет ничьей вины is 'in this, there is nobody's fault.' Russian uses в этом (in this / about this) in the prepositional case to refer back to the whole situation of the mistake being made, rather than using это as a direct subject.
Could I use кто-нибудь instead of кто-то for 'someone' here?
Not in this sentence. Кто-то means a specific, but unknown person ('someone'). Because the action already happened and we know a mistake was actually made by a real person, you must use кто-то. You would use кто-нибудь (anyone / someone) if the person were purely hypothetical, such as in the question: 'Did anyone make a mistake?'
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