Although, despite and in spite of introduce an idea of contrast. With
these words, you must have two halves of a sentence
"Although it was cold, she went out in shorts "
"In spite of the cold, she went out in shorts "
Despite and in spite of are used in the same way as due to and owing to
They must be followed by a noun. If you want to follow them with a
" noun and a verb, you must use " the fact that
Despite the fact that the company was doing badly, they took on extra employees
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They are similar in meaning,and they record something that is
surprising or unexpected
But the difference in usage is that " although " is a conjunction
whilst " despite " is a preposition
After " although " , we use a subject + verb
Although it rained a lot, we enjoyed our holiday
I didn't get the job although I had all the necessary qualifications
After " despite " ,we use a noun, a pronoun or ~ing
We went out despite the rain
Despite being very tired ,I couldn't sleep
Sayed Esmaeil