Breakdown of Его упрямство безнадёжно: что ни случится, он будет сопротивляться.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
что
what
быть
to be
случиться
to happen
его
his / its (possessive)
ни
no matter (concessive particle)
упрямство
stubbornness
сопротивляться
to resist
безнадёжно
hopelessly
Questions & Answers about Его упрямство безнадёжно: что ни случится, он будет сопротивляться.
Why is ни used in что ни случится instead of the regular negative particle не?
In Russian, the particle ни is combined with interrogative words like что, где, or кто to create "no matter what/where/who" phrases. This structure forms a universal concessive clause, and importantly, ни does not negate the verb here. If you used не, что не случится would literally mean "what will not happen."
Since "no matter what happens" sounds like a general, open-ended idea, why is the verb случится in the perfective aspect?
The perfective future случится is used because the speaker is thinking of any specific, completed event that might take place in the future. It focuses on the result of that potential event. If you wanted to say "no matter what usually happens" as a repeated, general truth, you would use the imperfective present: что ни случается.
Why is the short adjective безнадёжно used instead of the long form безнадёжное?
Here, безнадёжно serves as the main predicate of the clause, meaning "is hopeless." While using the long-form adjective as a predicate is grammatically possible, the short form is heavily preferred in Russian when making a strong, absolute, or definitive statement about a subject's quality.
Why does the first future action use one word (случится) while the second uses two (будет сопротивляться)?
This is a great example of how aspect changes future tense formation. Случится is perfective (focusing on the event happening), so its future tense is just the conjugated verb. Сопротивляться is imperfective because it describes a continuous or ongoing state of resistance, so it must use the compound future tense: the conjugated future of быть (будет) plus the infinitive.
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