Breakdown of Где они ни работают, они сопротивляются правилам, и спорить с ними бессмысленно.
и
and
где
where / wherever
они
they
работать
to work
спорить
to argue
правило
rule
с
with (also со)
ни
no matter (concessive particle)
сопротивляться
to resist
бессмысленно
pointlessly
Questions & Answers about Где они ни работают, они сопротивляются правилам, и спорить с ними бессмысленно.
Wait, doesn't ни mean "not"? Does где они ни работают mean "where they don't work"?
No, in this structure, где ... ни translates to "no matter where" or "wherever". The particle ни here doesn't negate the verb; instead, paired with a question word like где, it creates a universal concessive clause. Because the verb работают is in the present tense, it means "no matter where they are working".
Why is правилам in the dative case in the phrase сопротивляются правилам?
The verb сопротивляться (to resist) requires its object to be in the dative case. You can think of it as showing resistance "to" the rules.
Why is it с ними instead of с ими?
Whenever a third-person pronoun (like the instrumental ими) comes directly after a preposition (like с), Russian adds an н- to the beginning of the pronoun. This makes it easier to pronounce. Without a preposition, the form is just ими.
Why use the imperfective verb спорить (to argue) after бессмысленно instead of the perfective поспорить?
The word бессмысленно (pointless) is making a broad generalization. When expressing that an action is generally pointless, unnecessary, or not recommended, Russian strongly prefers the imperfective aspect to focus on the process of the action itself, rather than a single completed event.
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