Препятствие мешало движению.

Because the subject, препятствие, is neuter singular.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• masculine: мешал
• feminine: мешала
• neuter: мешало
• plural: мешали

Since препятствие is a neuter noun, the verb must be мешало.

Because the verb мешать normally takes the dative case for the person or thing being hindered.

So:

• мешать кому? чему? = to hinder / interfere with whom? what?

Here, движение changes to the dative singular:

• nominative: движение
• dative: движению

So движению means something like to movement or more naturally to the movement / movement after this verb.

Not quite. English often uses a direct object, but Russian uses different patterns depending on the verb.

With мешать, Russian usually does not use a direct object in the same way English does. Instead, it uses:

• мешать + dative

Examples:

• Ты мешаешь мне. = You are bothering / hindering me.
• Шум мешает работе. = The noise interferes with the work.
• Препятствие мешало движению. = The obstacle hindered movement.

So this is a very common thing to learn in Russian: the verb’s meaning may look simple, but its case pattern is different from English.

Мешать is the imperfective verb. It often describes an ongoing situation, a general fact, or a process of interference rather than a single completed act.

In this sentence, мешало suggests that the obstacle was hindering movement or hindered movement over some period of time.

The perfective partner is often помешать, which usually points to a more specific completed instance:

• Препятствие мешало движению. = The obstacle was hindering movement / hindered movement.
• Препятствие помешало движению. = The obstacle prevented / interfered with movement in a specific completed event.

So the imperfective here fits a descriptive statement well.

It is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence.

You can tell it is the subject because it is the thing doing the hindering:

• препятствие = the obstacle
• мешало = was hindering
• движению = movement, in the dative, the thing affected

So structurally, the sentence is:

• [Subject] препятствие
• [Verb] мешало
• [Dative object / complement] движению

Yes. Russian word order is much more flexible than English because the case endings show each word’s role.

You could also say:

• Движению мешало препятствие.

That still means the same thing. The difference is mainly one of focus or emphasis.

• Препятствие мешало движению.
  Focuses first on the obstacle.
• Движению мешало препятствие.
  Focuses first on the movement, then tells what was hindering it.

So the original order is neutral and very natural, but it is not the only possible order.

Препятствие is a neuter noun ending in -ие. Many Russian neuter nouns have this pattern.

Its basic forms are:

• nominative singular: препятствие
• genitive singular: препятствия
• dative singular: препятствию
• instrumental singular: препятствием
• prepositional singular: о препятствии

Because it ends in -ие, some learners are unsure about gender, but here it is definitely neuter, which is why the verb is мешало.

Yes, a very similar sentence is possible:

• Препятствие препятствовало движению.

That is grammatical, but it sounds more formal and stylistically heavier, partly because препятствие and препятствовать are closely related words.

Мешать is often more natural and common in everyday usage. It also takes the dative, just like препятствовать.

So both are possible, but мешало движению is a smoother, more idiomatic choice in many contexts.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Препятствие → prye-PYAT-stvi-ye
• мешало → mi-SHA-la
• движению → dvee-ZHE-nee-yu

The main stresses are:

• препятствие
• мешало
• движению

A few helpful points:

• ж sounds like the s in measure
• unstressed е and я are often reduced in real speech
• ию at the end of движению is pronounced as two syllables: -ni-yu

No. Russian has no articles, so there is nothing to add.

Whether you understand it as:

• the obstacle hindered movement
• an obstacle hindered the movement
• the obstacle hindered the movement

depends on context.

Russian leaves that kind of definiteness unstated unless the surrounding context makes it clear.

Not necessarily. Движение can mean:

• physical movement
• traffic
• motion
• a movement in a social or political sense, depending on context

In this sentence, without extra context, many learners will picture movement or traffic/flow being hindered by an obstacle. But the grammar stays the same regardless of the specific nuance.

So the sentence structure is useful beyond this exact meaning:

• X мешало Y-дат. = X hindered / interfered with Y