In this sentence, 'Despite the rain' is a prepositional phrase that shows contrast. The preposition 'despite' is followed by a noun, 'the rain.' The main clause is 'they continued to play outside,' where 'they' is the subject, 'continued' is the main verb, and 'to play outside' is an infinitive phrase acting as the direct object of the main verb. The infinitive phrase consists of the infinitive 'to play' and its adverb 'outside.' Overall, the sentence structure is a prepositional phrase followed by a main clause.
Despite the rain, they continued to play outside.
You are an expert in linguistics. Analyze the following sentence for its grammatical structure: 'Despite the rain, they continued to play outside.'