Breakdown of Нам было нечего делать за час до закрытия магазина.
мы
we
делать
to do
магазин
store, shop
час
hour
Questions & Answers about Нам было нечего делать за час до закрытия магазина.
How does the phrase за час до закрытия express "an hour before closing"?
This uses the exact structure you are learning in this lesson: за + [amount of time in Accusative] + до + [the event in Genitive]. Here, час (hour) is in the accusative case (which looks identical to the nominative for inanimate masculine nouns), and закрытия is the genitive form of the neuter noun закрытие (closing).
Why does the sentence start with Нам (to us) instead of Мы (we)?
The phrase нечего делать (nothing to do) is an impersonal expression. In Russian, the person experiencing an impersonal state is put in the dative case. Instead of saying "We had nothing to do" with a direct subject, Russian phrases it as "To us, there was nothing to do" (Нам было нечего делать).
Why use нечего instead of ничего here?
Нечего (always stressed on the first syllable) is specifically used in impersonal sentences with an infinitive to mean "there is nothing to [do]". If you wanted to say "We didn't do anything" using a regular personal subject, you would use ничего along with the negative particle не: Мы ничего не делали.
Why is the past tense verb было in the neuter form?