Breakdown of Что мы ни скажем, это напрасно из-за его упрямства.
это
this / it is
мы
we
что
what
сказать
to tell, to say
его
his / its (possessive)
из-за
because of; from behind
ни
no matter (concessive particle)
напрасно
in vain
упрямство
stubbornness
Questions & Answers about Что мы ни скажем, это напрасно из-за его упрямства.
Why do we use the particle ни here instead of не?
This sentence uses a "universal concessive clause," which translates to "no matter what/who/where" in English. To build this in Russian, you combine a question word (что) with the particle ни and a verb. It is not a negative sentence; we actually are going to say something. If you used не (Что мы не скажем), it would mean "What won't we say?".
Why is the verb скажем in the future tense when the English translation uses the present tense "say"?
Russian often uses the perfective future tense in these clauses to refer to a hypothetical single action that might happen. It implies "no matter what specific thing we might say". Using the present imperfective (что мы ни говорим) is also grammatically correct, but it would change the focus to a recurring, ongoing action: "no matter what we generally keep saying."
Can I change the word order to put ни right next to что, like Что ни мы скажем?
No, the particle ни must be placed directly before the verb it modifies. The subject pronoun мы naturally goes between the question word and the ни + verb block.
Why use из-за for "because of" instead of потому что?
Из-за is a preposition used right before a noun (here, упрямства in the genitive case) to point to the cause of a situation, usually a negative one. Потому что is a conjunction that must be followed by a full clause with a subject and a verb, such as потому что он упрямый (because he is stubborn).
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