Thread: 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!

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"

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...

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.

Thanks Alex.