Confusing English Words Despite vs. In Spite vs. Although

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about the

differences between despite in spite and

although these three words or three

phrases are very commonly used in

similar ways so I’m going to talk about

the differences in using them in

sentences let’s get started okay first I

want to look at despite and as I do I

want to make a special note about this

first point here I have here despite

means even though we’ll see in this

lesson actually all of these mean even

though so they all have this even though

meaning so that means even though a be

this is kind of like a common pattern

we’ll see in the example sentences today

so even though there’s this condition

there’s another condition so we’ll see

this a lot today when we use despite we

need to position it before a noun phrase

it needs to come before a noun phrase

will see this with in spite as well so

this is commonly used with these two

patterns so first is the fact that this

means the expression despite the fact

that and then you describe your

condition this is one very common way to

use despite we can drop that here so

despite the fact or despite the fact

that those are both very common ways to

use despite we can also use despite

before a verb in the ing form so here

we’re making it into a noun so despite

having or despite studying or despite

walking despite sleeping so we’re using

that I ng form we can use both of those

patterns with despite it’s very common

so let’s take a look at how this appears

in sentences then first despite the fact

he had no money he took an expense

vacation despite the fact so here I have

the fact he had no money he took an

expensive vacation so we have to use

some kind of noun expression here when

we’re talking about our work rather when

we’re using despite so this despite he

had no money this is incorrect this is

an incorrect sentence we need to use a

noun here so in this case the fact so

here the fact means this part he had no

money this is the fact we’re talking

about here so the fact fact means true

information 100% true information so

despite the fact this 100% true

information

he took an expensive vacation so again

even though a B so we could change the

sentence around we could say he took an

expensive vacation despite the fact he

had no money that’s also ok it’s up to

you to choose that part so let’s look at

another example using a different

pattern with despite here she took the

day off work despite having a lot to do

so here

I’ve used this verb in the ing form so

despite having a lot to do not despite

half but despite having a lot to do

again if I remove this it’s not correct

despite a lot to do mmm it’s not correct

we need to use a noun there so she took

the day off work despite having a lot to

do again

we could change the order of the

sentence and despite having a lot to do

she took the day off work that’s also ok

alright one more example here we were

pickpocketed at the airport despite that

we had a great trip

this is another common way that we use

despite here mine is that in this case

that refers to the point in the previous

sentence or in the previous clause in

this case despite

the fact we were pickpocketed at the

airport so despite this situation

despite this condition we had a great

trip

so you’ll commonly hear despite that

used to refer to the previous statement

okay so this is how we use despite now

let’s compare that with in spite so in

spite again means even though just as

all of these do in this lesson and just

like in our sorry just like despite

rather it needs to be positioned before

a noun phrase so that means we can use

the same patterns here as we used with

despite so for example the fact that can

be used with spite and there’s one more

point here that’s key we have to use of

when we use in spite so not just in

spite but in spite of something so in

spite of the fact that or another verb

in the ing form pattern here this is

also okay with in spite of so in spite

of having or in spite of losing these

kinds of patterns are okay as well so

this is a key point with in spite you

must use of in spite of some noun phrase

so let’s take a look at a few examples

of this first in spite of the fact we

lost the game the coach took the team

out for pizza so here is my noun phrase

here I’ve used o in spite of the fact we

lost the game so that’s my a here even

though a the coach took the team out for

pizza B even though a B in spite of a B

so there was this condition we lost the

game even though that was the situation

the coach took the team out for pizza so

we could use in spite of here another

example he didn’t get the job he wanted

in spite of that he was cheerful and

optimistic so again here I’ve used that

as my noun phrase where that

refers to the previous sentence so he

didn’t get the job he wanted maybe a

disappointing thing

despite that or in spite of that here we

can use to refer to that to mean like

even though this was the case he was

cheerful and optimistic

so you heard me just now use despite

instead that’s a pretty good clue and a

pretty good hint that actually we can

use in spite of and despite to mean

exactly the same thing they have exactly

the same meaning the only difference is

this of here we need to use of with in

spite and we do not use of with despite

so they are totally interchangeable you

can choose which you prefer I think I

tend to use despite more which is why I

used it just now if you want to you can

use in spite of to to me in spite of

feels a little bit more formal but it

could be just personal preference there

so we can use these two in exactly the

same way

we just need to consider this of point

before the noun phrase okay finally

let’s look at although although so yes

although again means even though as the

others do a key difference here though

is although does not need to be

positioned in front of a noun phrase so

we talked about using the fact or using

a verb in the ing form we do not do that

with although so let’s look at some

examples of how we do use it here

although good weather was expected it

rained on the day of the event so here

you’ll notice there’s no the fact there

is no that or anything here we just

continue right from although into the

condition so we describe the condition

good weather was expected this was the

condition

it rained on the day of the event so

even though a B we follow the same

pattern we followed here but the

structure of the sentence at this point

is just a little bit different there’s

no noun phrase there if we said although

the fact that it would not be correct we

do not use it this way we do not say

although that we do not use that either

we don’t use this verb

one two although having is not something

we use either okay let’s look at another

one so again we just begin describing

the condition right after although

so although we spent a lot of time

planning we didn’t finish the project on

time so here although even though we

spent a lot of time planning so here’s

my condition a we didn’t finish the

project on time so again there’s no like

noun phrase who we need to insert here

we just begin the situation talking

about the situation okay one final

example with although in the middle of

the sentence she was happy about her

test score although she looked

disappointed

so here I’ve reversed it this is like B

although a or B even though a she was

happy about her test score although she

looked disappointed so we can use this

in this way too

you’ll also notice I haven’t used

although like with this

I used that with in spite of and despite

we don’t use it in this way we don’t say

like although that we don’t use it in

that way if you want to refer back to

the previous sentence it might sound

nicer to use despite or in spite of so

that’s a case where maybe one of these

would be better to use than although so

you can see that although as a

conjunction there’s a nice job of

connecting these ideas and then we can

use despite and in spite kind of like to

refer back to go back to another point

that’s how I like to use these anyway so

maybe it’s helpful for you so these all

follow kind of one pattern that I’ve

mentioned many times in this lesson

which is this even though a me so lots

of these example sentences followed this

pattern so even though a B and here I

mentioned an opposite pattern B even

though

Hey so these are both correct you can

just choose whichever you prefer like if

you want to emphasize one point more

than another point you could start the

sentence with that so both patterns are

fine

and you can use all of these to

communicate very similar ideas you just

need to think about how you build the

sentence so I hope that this

introduction to these three expressions

helps you of course if you have

questions or comments or if you want to

practice making a sentence with one of

these please feel free to do so in the

comment section of this video of course

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much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again soon bye bye

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