B1
無論 / 不管…都 — no matter what
How Chinese says “no matter what” with 無論 and 不管, the structural rule that the clause after them must be a question, an A-not-A or an 還是 choice, and the 都 that completes it.
不管 and 無論 both mean no matter, and they behave identically. 不管 is what people say; 無論 is a shade more formal and turns up more in writing.
無論你說什麼，我都不同意。
Wúlùn nǐ shuō shénme, wǒ dōu bù tóngyì.
Whatever you say, I don’t agree.
不管天氣好不好，我們都去。
Bùguǎn tiānqì hǎo bu hǎo, wǒmen dōu qù.
We’re going whether the weather’s good or not.
The clause after it must be open
This is the rule that makes the pattern, and it has no English equivalent. What follows 不管 has to leave the outcome genuinely undecided, in one of exactly three ways:
- a question word — 什麼, 誰, 哪兒, 怎麼, 多少
- an A-not-A — 好不好, 去不去, 是不是
- an 還是 choice — 是你還是我
不管是你還是我，都可以。
Bùguǎn shì nǐ háishi wǒ, dōu kěyǐ.
Either you or me, it doesn’t matter.
無論多難，他都不放棄。
Wúlùn duō nán, tā dōu bú fàngqì.
However hard it is, he doesn’t give up.
不管天氣很好，我們都去。
不管天氣好不好，我們都去。
天氣很好 states a fact, and 不管 has nothing to range over. English gets away with no matter the weather because the noun alone implies the variation; Chinese makes you spell it out.
And 都 in the second half
The same both-halves shape as 雖然…但是 and 連…都. 也 works in place of 都 and is slightly lighter.
不管你去不去，我也要去。
Bùguǎn nǐ qù bu qù, wǒ yě yào qù.
Whether you go or not, I’m going.
Against 如果
如果 picks one condition and says what follows from it. 不管 sweeps all of them aside and says the outcome is the same either way. If you can name the condition, it is 如果; if the point is that the condition does not matter, it is 不管.