Breakdown of Невзирая на хрупкость, мастер не разбил стекло.
не
not
мастер
the stylist / master / craftsperson
разбить
to break
невзирая на
regardless of
хрупкость
fragility
Questions & Answers about Невзирая на хрупкость, мастер не разбил стекло.
The current lesson is about the concessive construction при всём / при всей. How would we rewrite this sentence using that grammar?
To use that construction, you would say При всей хрупкости стекла, мастер его не разбил (Despite all the fragility of the glass, the master didn't break it). Remember that при всей takes the Prepositional case, which is why хрупкость changes to хрупкости.
What case does невзирая на take, and why hasn't the word хрупкость changed its ending?
The preposition невзирая на requires the Accusative case. Хрупкость is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (a 3rd declension noun). For inanimate nouns in this category, the Accusative form is exactly the same as the Nominative.
Is невзирая a verb? It looks like a gerund (verbal adverb).
Historically, yes! It comes from the verb взирать (to look at), so literally it means "not looking at". However, невзирая на has frozen into a compound preposition meaning "despite", acting just like its slightly more common synonym несмотря на.
Does мастер mean "master" in the sense of a boss or a martial arts master?
Usually not in this context. In everyday Russian, a мастер is a skilled craftsman, technician, or repair worker. Here, it most likely refers to the glazier or the skilled workman who was hired to install or handle the glass.
Why do we use the perfective verb не разбил here? I thought negated past tense verbs are usually imperfective.
It is true that negated past actions are often imperfective to state a simple fact of absence ("it just didn't happen"). However, we use the perfective не разбил here to focus on the result of a specific, single attempt. It highlights that the worker was actively handling the glass and successfully avoided breaking it on this one occasion.
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