Breakdown of Полиция ищет след, но не находит абсолютно ничего.
не
not
но
but
ничего
nothing
искать
to look for
полиция
police
находить
to find (imperfective)
абсолютно
absolutely
след
trace / mark
Questions & Answers about Полиция ищет след, но не находит абсолютно ничего.
Why does the sentence use singular verbs (ищет, находит) when the English translation says "The police are looking"?
In Russian, the word полиция is a singular feminine noun, regardless of how many officers are involved. Because it is grammatically singular, it takes the third-person singular verb forms ищет and находит.
Since this lesson is about никакой, could we use it here instead of ничего (nothing)?
Yes! Instead of using the standalone pronoun ничего, you could use the negative adjective никакой to say "doesn't find absolutely any trace": не находит абсолютно никакого следа. Notice that because находить is negated here, the direct object (след) and its matching adjective (никакой) flip into the genitive case (никакого следа).
Why are there two negatives (не находит and ничего) in the second half of the sentence?
Russian requires a double negative. Whenever you use a negative word that starts with ни- (like ничего, никто, or никакой), you must also make the verb itself negative by placing не in front of it.
What is the infinitive of ищет, and why does it look so different from the present tense?
The infinitive is искать (to search / to look for). It undergoes a common consonant mutation where the ск in the stem changes to щ for all present-tense conjugations (e.g., я ищу, ты ищешь, она ищет).
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