Whats the difference HOWEVER vs NEVERTHELESS vs DESPITE Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about the

differences between however nevertheless

and despite I’m also going to talk a

little bit about the expression in spite

of - so let’s begin the first one that I

want to look at is the word however

however let’s take a look at three

different ways we can use however first

however can mean on the other hand or

but it’s like a more formal way of

saying but something kind of more polite

than just butt so let’s look at a couple

of examples of however used in this way

first example I wanted to go to a movie

however I stayed home and studied one

more sorry we don’t have T we do however

have coffee okay so these two examples

show how we use however to mean but like

in this first example it has the feeling

of but and in this one the second

example it’s more like on the other hand

so it’s like another option is available

we also see the kind of the positioning

of however or the use changes can shift

a little bit here we say that it’s

connecting these two ideas I wanted to

go to a movie a however so even though

there was this thing I wanted to go to a

movie but I stayed home and studied so

we’re connecting those two ideas there

it can have kind of the feel of even

though but not as much as some of the

other things we’re going to talk about

later in this sentence you might be

surprised at the positioning of however

here sorry we don’t have T that’s one

point we do however have coffee so this

is a pattern you might hear native

speakers use first we use this do we do

we use this to contrast to

like a strong opposite to this negative

don’t we don’t have tea

we do have coffee so this however is

like on the other hand so you could put

this here as I’ve done we do however

have coffee you could put this before

this comment however we do have coffee

that’s also okay so you might hear an

expression in an expression like this

you might hear the position of however

shift a little bit but these uses are on

the other hand or but let’s move on to a

totally different way of using however

we can use however to mean to whatever

degree or no matter how much no matter

how much so first let’s look at some

examples however hard we tried we

couldn’t stop him from smoking and

however badly we wanted to win we

couldn’t beat the top team in our league

so these two uses of however could be

replaced by this expression right here

no matter how much so it doesn’t matter

how much something for example it

doesn’t matter how hard we tried or in

this case past tense it didn’t matter

how hard we tried we couldn’t stop him

from smoking so no matter what we did it

didn’t matter how hard we tried this was

something we were unable to do so this

is a long expression no matter how much

is a long expression however is much

shorter same thing in the second

sentence however badly we wanted to win

again past tense we couldn’t beat the

top team in our league so no matter how

much we wanted to win is another way to

say this so no matter how much might

sound a little bit more casual

however using however in this way sounds

a little bit more formal so if you want

to express something in a more polite

way you could use however instead of no

matter how much

so you’ll see however you’ll notice here

positioned at the beginning of these

expressions so it’s like you’re no

matter how

much statement however comes at the

beginning of them we don’t see it at the

end okay so with that then let’s

continue on to the last use of however

we use however to express surprise or

shock like you might know the expression

how on earth so I have here a question

mark and an exclamation point we can

informally we can use these two together

to show like surprise and a question at

the same time so this is kind of a

formal expression and it’s a little

uncommon we don’t use this so much so

when we want to express shock oftentimes

about like a negative situation or like

a really surprising situation we could

use this for example however are we

going to get home tonight the car has

been stolen so this is a really shocking

situation using however here though

makes the speaker’s shock sound rather

formal so I would say this is probably

not like a really the first this is not

kind of the first thing and most native

speakers would say I think today most

native speakers would say how are we

going to get home however there are some

cases where however could be used to

express shock like this like a really

formal shock however are we going to get

home you can think of this like how on

earth are we going to get home so it

really kind of elevates it levels up

that shock and surprise feeling one more

example however did you find the answer

to this question so again surprise kind

of shock we really want to know how on

earth did you find the answer to this

question I’m really surprised however

did you find so we use these two for

polite shock but again it’s fairly

uncommon this is not a pattern that I

use very much you might see this perhaps

in like movies or TV from time to time

but again not so common in everyday

speech so these are three ways to use

however with that in mind let’s move on

to never the

less nevertheless so nevertheless

basically means even though even though

something something else so even though

a bee is kind of the field let’s look at

some examples first we got lost driving

in a new city

nevertheless we made it to the airport

on time and many said her dream project

couldn’t be done nevertheless she

continued working to achieve it so in

both of these sentences we see

nevertheless comes at the beginning of

the second sentence when we use

nevertheless in this way it means even

though the thing previously said so even

though this thing in sentence one so a

nevertheless comma B is a very common

pattern with nevertheless same thing

here

many said her dream project couldn’t be

done is our a statement nevertheless so

nevertheless meaning even though many

said her dream project couldn’t be done

she continued working to achieve it so

what’s the difference why should I use

nevertheless instead of even though

nevertheless sounds a bit more formal

than even though if you want something

to sound a little bit more serious less

casual you could use nevertheless in a

pattern like these so we essentially

keep the meaning of even though we just

make kind of a different sentence

structure there okay so with this in

mind then I want to go to despite and

then we’ll compare these two so despite

it’s just like nevertheless means even

though actually yes but when we use

despite we need to build different

sentence structures so let’s look at the

examples first I ran out of time to

style my hair before an important

meeting

despite that my presentation went well

one more despite the fact that she

arrived late at the airport she made it

to the conference on time so you might

notice here I

not using despite alone in my first

example sentence I’m using despite that

my second sentence despite the fact that

this is a key difference between despite

and nevertheless when we use despite we

have to connect it to a noun phrase when

we use nevertheless we do not so this is

the key difference between these two so

when I say connect despite to a noun

phrase

I mean patterns like these despite that

where that is your a statement so

despite that means the statement that

came before that means despite the fact

I ran out of time to style my hair

before an important meeting so even

though this happened my presentation

went well that’s what it means so we

have to use that or maybe this is well

that could be okay

depending on your situation so we have

to use that we cannot use just despite

we can’t do that we must include that

noun phrase so some common examples of

that as I said despite that or it

despite the fact that as I’ve done here

or just despite a B so I don’t have an

example sentence here but we could

change one of these sentences to use

just despite at the beginning of the

sentence so for example mmm despite my

favorite donut shop being open every day

I didn’t go this morning for example so

you could make an example sentence or

you could make a sentence and a

statement here and attach it directly to

despite but essentially it has to be

some kind of noun phrase we need to use

something in direct connection to

despite here so this is a key difference

with nevertheless so we always follow

nevertheless or I’m sorry we always

introduce our a point and then introduce

never the

it was like a nevertheless be it will

always follow that pattern so one more

point I want to mention here is the very

closely related in spite of in spite of

so in spite of we can actually use this

to replace despite they have the same

meaning the same function just be

careful

we use in spite of as a phrase as a set

phrase to mean despite so for example in

spite of that or in spite of the fact

that or in spite of a be so if you want

to use in spite of you can you can

replace despite with in spite of so to

summarize all of this over here

nevertheless we can think of

nevertheless like despite that then we

can think of

despite as equal to in spite of and we

can think of nevertheless as in spite of

that so these are kind of the

equivalents the things that are equal to

each other when we’re using these words

so yes they all mean even though they

have the same meaning but it’s just that

the way we make this sentence is a

little bit different so I hope that this

helps I’ll say to that I feel a despite

is a little more commonly used despite

that or despite the fact that is a

little more commonly used than

nevertheless or in spite of but actually

everything is common but I think the

most common perhaps is despite from this

group okay so this is a quick

introduction to however nevertheless and

despite and in spite of if you have any

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