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Some English students often get confuse with some words that have similar meaning, and many times those words actually have the same meaning, is like to say the same thing with different words. As your vocabulary grows you may want to express the same thing in different words and for that you’ll need to know about these words; “although”, “even though”, “in spite of”, and “despite,” all them have a basic premise which is the meaning of the word “but,” keeping that in mind, the only thing you have to do is visualize the situation of what you want to say it.
Here I write what you need to know in order to find those little differences in nuance.
“Although” is a conjunction that has the same meaning of “however” used as linker both introduce a statement which is followed by another statement that may seem surprising, or seems to disagree with what you have just said. Here’s some examples “although the car’s old, it still runs well” “the car is old however it still works well” both sentences have the same nuance and meaning. Using even though could have the same meaning but different nuance. “Even though the car’s old, it still runs well,” using even though you really emphasize, that the car is old. Even though is basically used to emphasize that although something happen or is true something else also happens and is true as well.
“Despite” and “in spite of” are used in different situations, they are used to express that something happen without been prevented by someone or something else. “Maria is a good worker in spite of her problems at home.” Also in situations in which you did something that you didn’t really want to do. “Maria realized that despite herself she worried about her husband.”
Despite and in spite of (prepositions) can only be followed by noun or gerund. “Despite being one of the largest cities in the world Mexico City, was relatively safe”. “Although” and “Even though” (conjunctions) must be followed by a finite verb such as “was.” Here are some clear examples: “Despite owning two cars, he can’t drive”. “Although he owns two cars he can’t drive.” Just one last thing, despite being busy everyday I’ll keep on writing these articles for you, so even though I know you’re busy too, please come to check them out, I’m sure they will help you to improve your English speaking skills. See you next time. Bye!