Learn Russian: На кого бы они ни нападали, он всегда защищал слабых. - Whomever they attacked, he always protected the weak.

In Russian, combining a question word (like кого), the particle бы, the particle ни, and a past tense verb creates a universal concessive clause. This pattern translates to an "-ever" word in English (whoever, whenever, however). The ни here doesn't negate the verb; instead, the whole structure means "no matter who they attacked."

Why does the preposition на come at the very beginning of the sentence instead of before the verb?

The verb нападать (to attack) requires the preposition на followed by the accusative case. In Russian, prepositions must stay directly attached to the front of the pronoun they govern. Therefore, на comes before the question word кого, and the particles бы and ни follow the entire prepositional phrase На кого.

The sentence describes a general, repeated action. Why is the verb нападали forced into the past tense?

Any time you use the particle бы to form a concessive or conditional mood like this one, Russian grammar strictly dictates that the accompanying verb must be in the past tense form. This rule applies regardless of whether the actual timeframe of the event is past, present, or future.

Why does the word for "the weak" (слабых) look like it is in the genitive case?