Word
Вопреки логике и здравому смыслу, он не подписал договор.
Meaning
Contrary to logic and common sense, he did not sign the contract.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Вопреки логике и здравому смыслу, он не подписал договор.
и
and
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
договор
contract / treaty
Questions & Answers about Вопреки логике и здравому смыслу, он не подписал договор.
Why are логике and здравому смыслу in the Dative case?
They are the objects of the preposition вопреки (contrary to). This preposition always requires the Dative case to show what an action is going against. Both логика (logic) and the phrase здравый смысл (common sense) take their Dative endings here.
Is здравый смысл the standard Russian phrase for 'common sense'?
Yes, this is the exact fixed phrase Russians use. Literally, здравый means 'healthy' or 'sound', and смысл means 'sense' or 'meaning'. So it translates word-for-word as 'sound sense'.
Why use the perfective verb подписал with negation here, rather than the imperfective подписывал?
Even though the action didn't happen, we use the perfective because the focus is on a single, specific failure to produce a result. He was expected to sign this specific contract, and he didn't do it. If we used не подписывал, it would imply a repeated action (he routinely did not sign contracts) or that he simply wasn't in the process of signing it.
Договор is the direct object here, so why doesn't its ending change?
It is actually in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb. However, since договор is a masculine inanimate noun, its Accusative form is identical to its Nominative dictionary form.