Breakdown of بالرغم من الطريق الوعر، فإن المستكشف تسلق الجبل.
الal
the
جبلjabal
mountain
طريقtarîq
road
بالرغم منbir-raghmi min
despite / although
Questions & Answers about بالرغم من الطريق الوعر، فإن المستكشف تسلق الجبل.
Why do we use فإن in the second half of the sentence?
In Arabic, when a sentence starts with a concession phrase like بالرغم من (despite), the main clause that follows often starts with فإن to strongly link the two ideas. It functions similarly to saying 'yet' or 'still' in English to emphasize the contrast.
Does فإن affect the grammar of the word that follows it?
Yes! Because it contains the emphasizing particle إن, the noun immediately following it must take the accusative case (mansuub). So here, 'the explorer' is فإن المستكشفَ (fa-inna al-mustakshifa) with a fatha on the final letter.
Can I use بالرغم من with a full clause instead of just the noun phrase الطريق الوعر?
To follow 'despite' with a full clause (like 'despite the fact that...'), you must add أن to make it بالرغم من أن. Because we only have a simple noun phrase here (the rugged road), the preposition من connects directly to the noun.
Why does the adjective الوعر (rugged) have the prefix ال attached to it?
In Arabic, adjectives must match the noun they describe in definiteness. Since الطريق (the road) is definite, the adjective must also take ال. If you dropped the second ال, the phrase would turn into a complete sentence meaning 'The road is rugged'.