Breakdown of Благодаря тому что нам помогли, мы сделали работу быстро.
мы
we
работа
work, job
быстро
fast, quickly
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
помогать
to help
благодаря тому что
thanks to the fact that
Questions & Answers about Благодаря тому что нам помогли, мы сделали работу быстро.
Why do we need тому here? Can't we just say Благодаря что for "Thanks to the fact that"?
Благодаря is a preposition that requires a noun or pronoun in the dative case. You cannot put a whole clause starting with что into a grammatical case. Instead, Russian uses the pronoun то as a placeholder in the dative case (тому). This creates the set phrase благодаря тому что.
Why does the sentence use the plural verb помогли if the English translation is "we were helped"? Who is the "they"?
Russian rarely uses a direct passive voice like "we were helped." Instead, it is very common to use a third-person plural verb like помогли without a subject to describe an action done by an unspecified person. It is like saying "someone helped us" or a generic "they helped us" in English.
Why is "us" translated as нам (dative) rather than нас (accusative)?
The verbs for helping, помогать and помочь, always require the dative case for the person receiving the help. Because of this rule, "helped us" must be translated using the dative pronoun нам.
Why use the perfective verb сделали instead of the imperfective делали?
The perfective verb сделали shows that the work was successfully completed. If you used the imperfective делали, it would mean "we were doing the work quickly," which only focuses on the ongoing process and doesn't guarantee the job was actually finished.
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