Breakdown of В какой бы город они ни переезжали, они не покидали нас.
не
not
мы
we
они
they
город
city
какой
which/what kind of (m, sister forms: какая, какое)
в
in / to (direction)
бы
would (conditional particle) / concessive particle
переезжать
to move house, to relocate
ни
not (negative particle in "with no one", "about nothing")
покидать
to abandon
Questions & Answers about В какой бы город они ни переезжали, они не покидали нас.
Why is the verb переезжали in the past tense here?
The concessive construction [question word] + бы ни strictly requires the verb to be in the past tense, even if the overall meaning of the sentence applies to the present or future. In this specific sentence, the context is already in the past, but the past tense form is grammatically locked in by the particle бы regardless.
Why does the preposition в come at the very beginning of the sentence instead of right before the noun город?
In Russian, when an interrogative word like какой modifies a noun and is used with a preposition, the preposition must come before the interrogative word. You must say В какой бы город (literally 'Into which would city') rather than putting в right before город.
Since they actually did move to these cities, why is the negative particle ни used before переезжали?
In this specific grammar pattern, ни does not negate the verb. Together, the question word (какой), the particle бы, and the particle ни create the universal meaning of 'no matter which' or 'whatever'. If you accidentally used не, you would change the meaning to a literal negation, implying they did not move.
Why are both переезжали and покидали in the imperfective aspect?
The imperfective aspect highlights that these were repeated actions. The phrase 'Whatever city they moved to' implies they moved multiple times. Consequently, не покидали (did not abandon) shows their continuous loyalty or repeated behavior across all of those separate moves.
Could I change the word order and put город at the end of the first clause, like В какой бы они ни переезжали город?
It is much more natural to keep the noun город right next to the adjective какой that modifies it. The standard formula keeps the phrase intact: [Preposition] + [Question Word] + бы + [Noun] + [Subject] + ни + [Past Verb]. Splitting какой бы and город would sound awkward to a native speaker.
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