Breakdown of Благодаря тому что он много читал, он хорошо пишет.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
много
a lot
читать
to read
писать
to write
Questions & Answers about Благодаря тому что он много читал, он хорошо пишет.
Why do we need тому что instead of just saying благодаря он много читал?
The preposition благодаря (thanks to) must be followed by a noun or pronoun in the Dative case, not a whole clause. To connect it to a full clause like 'he read a lot', you have to use the placeholder pronoun то in the Dative case (тому), followed by что. Literally, it translates to 'Thanks to that, that he read a lot.'
Why is there no comma before что in благодаря тому что?
In Russian, compound conjunctions like благодаря тому что (thanks to the fact that) or несмотря на то что (despite the fact that) often act as a single unit. When they start a sentence, the comma is placed at the very end of that whole subordinate clause, not inside the conjunction itself. You can put a comma before что if you want to place heavy vocal stress on тому, but leaving it whole is standard here.
The translation says 'having read', which sounds like a completed action. Why does this sentence use the imperfective past читал instead of the perfective прочитал?
The imperfective читал is used here to emphasize the prolonged process or general habit of reading over a long period of time. It is this accumulated habit that makes him a good writer. If you used the perfective прочитал, it would sound like he successfully finished reading a specific book or a defined list of things, rather than just 'being a reader' in general.
Can I flip the order and put the main clause first?