Breakdown of Что бы они ни сделали, я не могу осудить обоих коллег.
не
not
я
I
они
they
что
what
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
мочь
to be able to
коллега
colleague
бы
would (conditional particle) / concessive particle
оба
both (m/n)
ни
not (negative particle in ни с кем, ни о чём)
осудить
to condemn (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Что бы они ни сделали, я не могу осудить обоих коллег.
Why is there a ни in Что бы они ни сделали, and does it make the phrase negative?
No, it doesn't make it negative. In this structure, adding ни after a question word plus бы creates the meaning of 'no matter what' or 'whatever'. So the phrase means 'whatever they did,' not 'what they didn't do.'
Could I write что бы as a single word (чтобы) here?
No. The single word чтобы is a conjunction meaning 'in order to' or 'so that.' Here, you are combining the question word что (what) with the particle бы to build the 'whatever' structure, so they must remain separate words.
Why must the verb сделали be in the past tense here?
The particle бы always requires its verb to be in the past tense, just like in hypothetical 'if' clauses. Even if the English translation was 'Whatever they do' in the present or future, Russian still requires the past tense form сделали because of the бы.
How does the phrase обоих коллег get its grammatical case and endings?
The verb осудить (to condemn) requires the accusative case. Since colleagues are animate, the accusative plural matches the genitive plural. The numeral оба (both) becomes обоих for a masculine or mixed-gender group. The noun коллега drops its vowel ending to become коллег. If both colleagues were definitively women, it would be обеих коллег.
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