Learn Italian: Nonostante l'umidità, i teloni ne hanno protetto una buona parte. - Despite the humidity, the tarpaulins protected a good part of it.

Nonostante l'umidità, i teloni ne hanno protetto una buona parte.

Despite the humidity, the tarpaulins protected a good part of it.

Breakdown of Nonostante l'umidità, i teloni ne hanno protetto una buona parte.

of it / of them / some (pronoun)

Questions & Answers about Nonostante l'umidità, i teloni ne hanno protetto una buona parte.

Can I replace Nonostante with Malgrado in this sentence?

Yes, absolutely! Nonostante and malgrado are completely interchangeable when used as prepositions before a noun. You could just as easily say Malgrado l'umidità. They both mean "despite" or "in spite of".

Since we are using nonostante as a preposition, do we ever need to add di or a after it?

No, when followed by a noun, nonostante and malgrado attach directly to the noun and its definite article. You will never see nonostante all'umidità or nonostante dell'umidità, only nonostante l'umidità.

What exactly is the word ne doing in this sentence?

Here, ne means "of it" or "of them". It replaces the previously mentioned thing that the tarpaulins were covering. Instead of repeating the noun by saying "protected a good part of the cargo", Italian uses the pronoun ne placed right before the conjugated verb: ne hanno protetto una buona parte.

I thought ne makes the past participle agree with the quantity. Why is it protetto instead of protetta to match una buona parte?