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
questions or comments or if there’s
something else you would like to know
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