Breakdown of Несмотря на то, что был дождь, он не помешал туристам.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
дождь
rain
турист
tourist
быть
to be
несмотря на то, что
despite the fact that
помешать
to hinder
Questions & Answers about Несмотря на то, что был дождь, он не помешал туристам.
Why is туристам in the Dative case here?
The verb помешал (hinder/interfere) requires the Dative case without a preposition. Even though it means the opposite of helping, it follows the exact same rule as verbs of assistance like помогать (to help). It essentially means the rain caused no hindrance to the tourists.
Why does the sentence use несмотря на то, что instead of just несмотря на?
The preposition несмотря на (despite) can only be followed directly by a noun, like in несмотря на дождь (despite the rain). Because this sentence follows it with a full phrase containing a verb (был дождь), Russian requires the bridge phrase то, что (the fact that). Literally it translates as: Despite that, that there was rain.
Why does the second half of the sentence start with он if the translation says "it"?
The pronoun он refers back to дождь (rain). Since дождь is a masculine noun, it must be replaced by он in the next clause, even though in English we refer to weather events as "it".
What is the imperfective form of помешал?
The imperfective form is мешать. You might remember this verb from earlier lessons as meaning "to mix" or "to stir", but it also commonly means "to hinder" or "to bother". The perfective form помешать is used here to state the completed result: the rain did not actually manage to hinder them.
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