in spite of vs. despite

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello,
I’d like to ask you something - again!

I’ve recently had a rather heated argument with an English teacher. The reason was that we didn’t agree with each other on these lovely structures:

In spite of the fact he was ill… (this was ok)
Despite of the fact he was ill… (and that’s the point!)

Do we say despite OF sth? We don’t, do we?

Thanks for a brief explanation!

Jana

2

Jana,

It’s as you say, either ‘inspite of of the fact’ or ‘despite the fact’.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Spraying[YSaerTTEW443543]

3

This could be a tricky one if there is likely to be a conflict between you and your teacher and I’d hate to be the cause of that. The two possiblities are: In spite of the fact that … or Despite the fact that … Another way of saying this is: Despite his illness - this sounds less complicated.

Alan

4

Alan and Thorsten,

thank you both very much! So I was right after all, I see…

I could also say “Despite his being ill…” or “In spite of his being ill…”, right?

Jana

5

You are quite right.

However, a little more on the original post:
Since ‘despite’ is ‘in spite of’, ‘despite [color=red]of’ would be ‘in spite of [color=red]of’ which is obviously redundant.