Hey everyone! Welcome back to my channel this is Dori, I am a teacher of English and today
I'd like to talk to you about some very important linking phrases that you use in your writings and if
you don't use them you should because they are really very good linking phrases so most students get confused
with these phrases either in relation to their meaning or to their syntax but
today I'm going to clarify the differences with very simple examples
So, these phrases are although, despite, in spite of, and however. Let's
clarify one thing first things first these phrases have exactly the same meaning they are synonyms
they all mean "even though"
or if you prepare a simpler translation they mean "but" however they do have
different syntax and this is what we're going to see today
together with these examples ok these are very useful phrases to use so
let's go and see their differences with very simple examples in order for you to
understand them and remember them so let's start with however If you use however
remember that you're about to say something different from what you
previously stated and always remember to use a comma afterwards punctuation in
writing is very very important so for example we have. Now
you're going to say something different from that that's why you start with
however and a comma immediately afterwards
you may also use however between 2 commas without starting a new
sentence so for example we have
that's it! Just remember to use a comma immediately after now let's move on
to although it means exactly the same thing but it has different
syntax as we said although doesn't need a comma immediately after but only at the
end of the sentence so
let's see we start the sentence and now we use a comma
so can you see the difference with however?
Although starts the sentence and the comma is at the end of it, at the end
of the first sentence you will never never never use a comma immediately
after although this is a very important punctuation mistake ok so you will never
do that now let's move onto despite and in spite of they mean the same thing and they have
the same syntax that I will now show you so what's the difference
are you would ask me the difference is that in spite of always needs the
prepositions "in" and "of" whereas despite needs nothing as we can see it's
by itself, just despite so let's look at the examples of their syntactical use
and you will understand these better so this is
one way of using that
reach the top shelf or you can also use gerund afterwards if you
don't want to use "the fact that" so if
you want to use in spite of instead since they are used in the same way in
terms of syntax we will have
OR with gerund afterwards
So there you go this is how you can use these linking phrases without making any mistakes! Start using them
in your writings today!