I love studying foreign languages despite the fact, how challenging it is.
In spite of the fact... despite the fact...
Today we are going to study two English prepositional expressions: despite and in spite of.
Hi, guys! And welcome to English Mania!
My name is Antonia Romaker and today I teach you English.
We are going to talk about the difference between the phrase in spite of and the word despite.
First of all a couple of facts about these two.
They are considered to be prepositional expressions, the meaning of which is similar to the meaning of
although or even though.
Despite and in spite of are more common in writing, than in speaking.
In addition despite is a tiny bit more formal.
In spite of and despite express a contrast between two things.
He got the job in spite of his prison record. In spite of his prison record.
So he had a prison bracket but he still got the job. There's a contrast here.
You can also say he got the job despite his prison record.
Notice that you write in spite of as three words and you never use of with despite.
Despite plus a noun in spite of, plus a noun.
Despite a thorough investigation, no trace of Mr Black has been found.
So there was a thorough investigation but it didn't help.
You can also say in spite of a thorough investigation.
Apart from being used with nouns these two expressions,
despite and in spite of, can be used with gerunds.
That is a verb with the ending -ing. He was very fast in spite of being terribly overweight.
In spite of being, being is a gerund here.
They were late despite living in plenty of time.
Remember you are not supposed to use these expressions with 'that' clause.
So don't use a 'that' clause after despite or in spite of.
Instead, you need to say: in spite of the fact, that...
Or despite the fact, that... You need to add the noun the fact.
She went to Spain despite the fact that her doctor had told her to rest.
He hired his friend in spite of the fact that he had no experience whatsoever.
Anyway that's it! I hope that now you know everything you need about these two prepositional expressions.
In spite of and despite. Once again remember that you need to use the word despite alone.
There is no need to use the preposition of,
simply despite the fact, despite overheating, despite bad weather and so on.
And you use in spite of as three words, and there's always of within this expression.
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