Breakdown of Что ни случится, мы будем шутить, невзирая на страх.
мы
we
что
what
быть
to be
случиться
to happen
страх
fear
ни
no matter (concessive particle)
шутить
to joke
невзирая на
regardless of
Questions & Answers about Что ни случится, мы будем шутить, невзирая на страх.
Why is страх in the accusative case here instead of the prepositional case, since it follows на?
The concessive preposition невзирая на (regardless of) always takes the accusative case. Historically, it comes from the gerund form of an old verb meaning 'to look'. Just like the literal action of looking at a target takes на plus the accusative (смотреть на), this preposition keeps that exact same case requirement for its object.
Why does the sentence use ни in Что ни случится instead of не? Is it a negative sentence?
This is not a negative sentence at all! When the particle ни is paired with question words like что (what), где (where), or кто (who), it acts as an amplifier to create a generalizing meaning equivalent to the English suffix '-ever'. Therefore, Что ни случится translates to 'Whatever happens'.
Why do we use the imperfective future будем шутить rather than the perfective пошутим?
The phrase 'whatever happens' sets up an ongoing situation or a repeated response to unpredictable events. The imperfective aspect here shows that joking will be a continuous state or a habitual reaction, rather than just a single completed action of telling one joke.
Why is there a comma before невзирая на страх?
In Russian, phrases starting with the concessive prepositions несмотря на and невзирая на are almost always set off by commas. Because these prepositions originated as gerunds (verbal adverbs literally meaning 'not looking at'), they still follow the strict Russian punctuation rule that requires gerund phrases to be separated by commas.
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