Breakdown of Annak ellenére, hogy kevés az önkéntes, elszállítják a hulladékot.
az
the
kevés
few
hulladék
waste; discarded material
önkéntes
a volunteer
Questions & Answers about Annak ellenére, hogy kevés az önkéntes, elszállítják a hulladékot.
What does Annak ellenére, hogy mean as a whole?
It means despite the fact that or even though.
So:
- Annak ellenére, hogy kevés az önkéntes = despite the fact that there are few volunteers / even though there are few volunteers
This is a very common Hungarian connector for introducing a contrast.
A rough literal breakdown is:
- annak = of that
- ellenére = in spite of
- hogy = that
But it is best learned as one fixed expression:
- annak ellenére, hogy = despite the fact that / even though
Why is it annak ellenére, not just ellenére?
Because ellenére normally goes with a pronoun or noun that tells you in spite of what.
- annak is the dative/genitive-like form of az (that)
- annak ellenére literally means something like in spite of that
In this sentence, the full structure is:
- annak ellenére, hogy... = despite the fact that...
So annak is part of the standard pattern. Hungarian often uses this kind of pronoun + postposition structure where English would just use a conjunction.
Why is hogy needed here?