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Thread: сколько нибудь... what does this mean?

  1. #1
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    сколько нибудь... what does this mean?

    The full sentence:
    'для того, чтобы управлять, нужно, как никак, иметь точный план на некоторый, хоть сколько нибудь приличный срок.'

    which I translate as
    'In order to govern, (it is) necessary to have nothing less than a precise plan for an – at least (?) decent – period of time.'
    I have written 'at least (?) decent' between dashes to show that the whole clause works as an adjective. Or at least I think it does...

    I haven't seen нибудь without куда- etc before it, and the whole construction of 'на некоторый, хоть сколько нибудь...' is not something I can translate in a satisfactory way. The construction of the this entire sentence has been a bit of a headahe to me so far; so many commas.

    Also, 'на некоторый' may not be best translated as 'for an', but it was the best I could do to make the sentence intelligible.

    Can anyone help?

    Thanks!

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    Any interrogative pronoun can be combined with "нибудь".
    "Когда-нибудь мы вспомним это, и не поверится самим" - demonstrates "когда-нибудь".
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYJkcLSxyxQ - "где-нибудь" at 07:05.
    etc

    One tramp at the train station in Usti-nad-Labem knew "сколько-нибудь" perfectly.
    He asked me for "хоть сколько-нибудь, хоть 1 евро"

    I cannot translate "сколько-нибудь приличный срок" but roughly it could be something like "for not-too-short period"
    "Невозможно передать смысл иностранной фразы, не разрушив при этом её первоначальную структуру."

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    Thanks, I had it as "at least some decent period of time". I suppose really it's just better taken as a whole idiomatic sentence. In your 'tramp' example, I could translate that as 'at least some amount, at least 1 euro' then. Which would keep me happy...

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    сколько-нибудь = "any quantity (above zero)". it is usually used in context where more is good, but we agree with less too.
    сколько-нибудь приличный "any quantity (above zero) that looks decent". so, i think "at least decent" is good translation.

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    Thanks Alex.

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