# Я люблю тебя, какой бы ты ни был.



## Xavier61

Всем привет. I would like to know what means the last part of this sentencie and how to translate it:
Я люблю тебя какой бы ты не был.
Спасибо заранее


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## Maroseika

Correct spelling is *какой бы ни*.
Какой бы ты ни́ был means любой, i.e. я люблю тебя любым, I love you whatever you are.

Similar constructions (note that the stress is on *ни *and not on *был*):
где бы ни
Я найду тебя, где бы ты ни был (I'll find you wherever you are).
сколько бы ни
Я найду тебя, сколько бы ты ни прятался (I'll find you no matter how long you will hide from me)
And the same way with other interrogative pronouns (что, кому, как, куда, откуда, etc.). Usually it is translated in English by use of -ever (whoever, whatever, whereever, etc.).


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## Vadim K

Depende del contexto la frase puede significar dos cosas:

1. Te quiero no importa como te veas (por ejemplo, si el hablante nunca antes ha visto su interlocutor)
2. Te quiero por más que cambies (por ejemplo, si el hablante vive con su interlocutor y va a amarla para siempre).


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## Xavier61

Maroseika said:


> Correct spelling is *какой бы ни*.
> Какой бы ты ни́ был means любой, i.e. я люблю тебя любым, I love you whatever you are.
> 
> Similar constructions (note that the stress is on *ни *and not on *был*):
> где бы ни
> Я найду тебя, где бы ты ни был (I'll find you wherever you are).
> сколько бы ни
> Я найду тебя, сколько бы ты ни прятался (I'll find you no matter how long you will hide from me)
> And the same way with other interrogative pronouns (что, кому, как, куда, откуда, etc.). Usually it is translated in English by use of -ever (whoever, whatever, whereever, etc.).


Thank you, this is a very god explanation, and Vadim's also; one year has passed and I have heard *ни* many times used as you explained above, but I still have some doubts. What should I think of this song:

Ты моя нежность, ты моё небо
За тобой встану, где бы ты *не* был
Ты моё сердце, ты моё чудо
Обниму нежно и с тобой буду
Наргиз - Ты Моя Нежность - Текст Песни

I have checked other sites, they all write *не. *It is in Youtube (and on the radio everyday), and I hear *не*. She repeats it many times (припев) and slowly. Maybe my ear is bad and she says *ни*?


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## Vovan

You hear it correctly, and the singer really sings "не".
Probably, this was done for the lines to rhyme.
It would be considered as a serious mistake in a language exam, though.
But this mistake is quite common with many quite literate speakers, one should note.


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## Xavier61

Vovan said:


> You hear it correctly, and the singer really sings "не".
> Probably, this was done for the lines to rhyme.
> It would be considered as a serious mistake in a language exam, though.
> But this mistake is quite common with many quite literate speakers, one should note.


Thank you, Vovan. As you say, many people make that mistake; probably they were not good students. I was just wondering whether the usage of *не *instead of *ни* had some special, emotional connotation, since it is obviously a mistake from the grammatical point of view. There are several songs that use it:
Гайтана: как бы не было больно
Карина Кокс - Где Бы Ты Не Был
итд


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## Maroseika

Xavier61 said:


> I was just wondering whether the usage of *не *instead of *ни* had some special, emotional connotation, since it is obviously a mistake from the grammatical point of view.


No special connotation, just a mistake.


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## Awwal12

I agree. People just tend to mix не and ни particles up, which is not surprising, since in speech they most frequently appear unstressed and hence indistinguishable; that ultimately results in analogical merger in stressed positions as well, at least for many speakers.


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## Xavier61

Maroseika said:


> No special connotation, just a mistake.


When one person speaks different from others, we call it "mistake".
When many people speak different from others, we call it  *lect or *ism (some word ending in -lect or -ism).


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## Xavier61

Awwal12 said:


> I agree. People just tend to mix не and ни particles up, which is not surprising, since in speech they most frequently appear unstressed and hence indistinguishable; that ultimately results in analogical merger in stressed positions as well, at least for many speakers.


Yes, I understand that. I was just surprised to hear it in a song on the radio. If it is only a mistake, why broadcast it?


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## Maroseika

Xavier61 said:


> When one person speaks different from others, we call it "mistake".
> When many people speak different from others, we call it  *lect or *ism (some word ending in -lect or -ism).


Maybe some day this will become a variant of standard. But for the time being it's still mistake. If you want to speak Russian correctly, better avoid it. If you want to speak Russian like "many people", it's up to you to decide.
As for the broadcasting of songs with mistakes, this is not so unusual. Poetry sometimes sacrifices grammar for the sake of rhyme, rhythm, metre, euphony etc. It's abit risky to rely on poetry as the grammar etalon.


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## Xavier61

Maroseika said:


> Maybe some day this will become a variant of standard. But for the time being it's still mistake. If you want to speak Russian correctly, better avoid it. If you want to speak Russian like "many people", it's up to you to decide.
> As for the broadcasting of songs with mistakes, this is not so unusual. Poetry sometimes sacrifices grammar for the sake of rhyme, rhythm, metre, euphony etc. It's abit risky to rely on poetry as the grammar etalon.


Спасибо. Думаю понял: можно говорят "я люблю тебя, какой бы ты н*е* был" (или подобные выражения) только наедине. Звучит лучше в данном ситуации? Песни за это, интимность?


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## Maroseika

Xavier61 said:


> Спасибо. Думаю понял: можно говорят "я люблю тебя, какой бы ты н*е* был" (или подобные выражения) только наедине. Звучит лучше в данном ситуации?


Я думаю, что лучше звучит так, как правильно. Дело ведь не в слепом следовании формальному правилу, а в смысле высказывания. 
"Каким бы глупым ты не был" означает, что ты не глупый. 
"Как бы мне не было холодно" означает, что мне не холодно. Поэтому фраза "Как бы мне не было холодно, я носил пальто нараспашку" бессмысленна.


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## Vovan

Xavier, this mistake is much like "should of" instead of "should have" in English. 
OK, not that gross: it's like "principal" instead of "principle".


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> "Как бы мне не было холодно" означает, что мне не холодно. Поэтому фраза "Как бы мне не было холодно, я носил пальто нараспашку" бессмысленна.


Фраза, образованная путём подстановки, предложенной вами, звучит совершенно нормально: "Мне не (было) холодно, я носил пальто нараспашку". В этой фразе нет противопоставления, и только. Этим вы только запутываете изучающих русский язык.


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## Maroseika

Rosett said:


> Фраза, образованная путём подстановки, предложенной вами, звучит совершенно нормально: "Мне не (было) холодно, я носил пальто нараспашку". В этой фразе нет противопоставления, и только.


Боюсь, что не понял вашего довода. Да, в вашей фразе все нормально. Но какое она имеет отношение к обсуждаемой конструкции с союзом *как бы ни*? Этот союз используется при присоединении придаточной части сложноподчиненного предложения, в которой содержится допущение чего-либо, соответствуя по значению словам *хотя и*, *даже если*:
Хотя мне и было холодно, я носил пальто нараспашку.


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> Боюсь, что не понял вашего довода. Да, в вашей фразе все нормально. Но какое она имеет отношение к обсуждаемой конструкции с союзом *как бы ни*?


Вы утверждаете, что фраза "Как бы мне не было холодно, я носил пальто нараспашку" бессмысленна, допустив при этом, что "Как бы мне не было холодно" означает, что мне не холодно.
На самом деле, "Как бы мне не было холодно" - совершенно нормальная фраза сама по себе (как и в других обсуждаемых случаях написания с "не/ни", например, Как бы ни было больно), но без контекста невозможно решить, что правильно (имеет смысл), а что - нет.


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## Q-cumber

"Как бы мне *не *было холодно" - выражение опасения, что мне будет холодно. "Как бы мне не было холодно в этой тонкой куртке!"

Но "как бы мне ни было холодно,  этот дурацкий пуховик я не надену".


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## Xavier61

Vovan said:


> Xavier, this mistake is much like "should of" instead of "should have" in English.
> OK, not that gross: it's like "principal" instead of "principle".


Vovan, I think this is another kind of error. I have read today in a low-level forum about Russian language that many people follow a wrong rule : "write *не* when stressed, write *ни* when not stressed". This rule is obviously wrong, since there are many instances of stressed ни. And that explains most mistakes, but not all.
 I still don't understand why a singer sings "ни жалéю бóльше нé а чóм" (as I hear it) (Почему, A-studio, 2 versions in Youtube), but the lyrics writes it right "не жалею больше ни о чём".
As Maroseika and others have pointed out, singers and poets can deviate from standard language, and probably that's all.


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## Xavier61

Maroseika said:


> Maybe some day this will become a variant of standard. But for the time being it's still mistake. If you want to speak Russian correctly, better avoid it. If you want to speak Russian like "many people", it's up to you to decide.
> As for the broadcasting of songs with mistakes, this is not so unusual. Poetry sometimes sacrifices grammar for the sake of rhyme, rhythm, metre, euphony etc. It's abit risky to rely on poetry as the grammar etalon.


Of course, I will try to speak Russian correctly. My interest was only theoretical, I always try to learn from mistakes. I want to thank you and all the forum for having helped in this matter.


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## Rosett

Xavier61 said:


> singers and poets can deviate from standard language, and probably that's all.


They possibly can, but only to the extent where it still remains Russian language. Often, the deviations are made on purpose to convey some special meanings or to puzzle the listeners by such tounures.


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## Vovan

Xavier61 said:


> sings "ни жалéю бóльше нé а чóм" (as I hear it) (Почему, A-studio, 2 versions in Youtube), but the lyrics writes it right "не жалею больше ни о чём".


I've listened to the song. She really sings so!
And this is very, very strange!
Normally, native speakers of Russian never hear such irregularities, I can assure you.

What may be the reason for the singer to create one?.. No idea. Probably the girl was in a trance while recording the song.


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## Xavier61

Vovan said:


> I've listened to the song. She really sings so!
> And this is very, very strange!
> Normally, native speakers of Russian never hear such irregularities, I can assure you.
> 
> What may be the reason for the singer to create one?.. No idea. Probably the girl was in a trance while recording the song.


Well, I asked because I hear it often on the radio, as they say "нас не просто слушать, нас слушивать". I am sure that many native Russians also hear it. And I think that listening to songs and poems (I follow Rosett's advice) is useful for learners of Russian, it is a lot easier to remember the stress of words. If only they could sing right ...


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## Vovan

Xavier61 said:


> I am sure that many native Russians also hear it.


Well, Xavier, now I hear it too! Thanks for that!

Today Mr Putin had a meeting with Mr Macron, and Mr Putin said during the press conference after the meeting, "Что касается вмешательства - мнимого вмешательства - России в чьи бы то не было выборы, то этот вопрос мы не обсуждали".

I've checked a well-known newspaper, _Izvestia, _and found that they had corrected Mr Putin's words (не -> ни), which didn't surprise me at all.
Or, maybe, they just didn't hear quite well what he said.


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## Xavier61

Vovan said:


> Well, Xavier, now I hear it too! Thanks for that!
> 
> Today Mr Putin had a meeting with Mr Macron, and Mr Putin said during the press conference after the meeting, "Что касается вмешательства - мнимого вмешательства - России в чьи бы то не было выборы, то этот вопрос мы не обсуждали".
> 
> I've checked a well-known newspaper, _Izvestia, _and found that they had corrected Mr Putin's words (не -> ни), which didn't surprise me at all.
> Or, maybe, they just didn't hear quite well what he said.


Thank you Vovan, I searched for the video, and yes, he says "не" (minute 21:30 in Россия24). Not really surprising, I have heard it too many times, and I am only a medium level student. I guess the merger of "ни/не" is too common, as you and others have pointed out before. I am sure that Mr. Putin would write "ни", but sometimes it is good for a politician to speak as his people speak


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