| Hi everybody, my name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about the differences between however, nevertheless, and despite. |
| I'm also going to talk a little bit about the expression in spite of too. |
| So let's begin. The first one that I want to look at is the word however, however. Let's take a look at three different ways we can use however. |
| First, however can mean on the other hand, or but. |
| It's like a more formal way of saying but, something kind of more polite than just but. So let's look at a couple of examples of however used in this way. |
| First example, I wanted to go to a movie. However, I stayed home and studied. One more, sorry, we don't have tea. |
| We do, however, have coffee. Okay, so these two examples show how we use however to mean but, like in this first example, it has the feeling of but, and in this one, the second example, it's more like on the other hand, so it's like another option is available. We also see the kind of the positioning of however, or the use changes can shift a little bit. |
| Here, we see that it's connecting these two ideas. I wanted to go to a movie. |
| However, so even though there was this thing, I wanted to go to a movie, but I stayed home and studied. So we're connecting those two ideas there. |
| It can have kind of the feel of even though, but not as much as some of the other things we're going to talk about later. |
| In this sentence, you might be surprised at the positioning of however here. Sorry, we don't have tea. That's one point. |
| We do, however, have coffee. So this is a pattern you might hear native speakers use. First, we use this do, we do, we use this to contrast, to give like a strong opposite to this negative don't. We don't have tea. We do have coffee. |
| So this however is like on the other hand. So you could put this here as I've done. We do, however, have coffee. You could put this before this comment. |
| However, we do have coffee. That's also okay. So you might hear an expression in an expression like this, you might hear the position of however shift a little bit. |
| But these uses are on the other hand, or but. |
| Let's move on to a totally different way of using however. We can use however, to mean to whatever degree, or no matter how much, no matter how much. |
| So first, let's look at some examples. However hard we tried, we couldn't stop him from smoking. And however badly we wanted to win, we couldn't beat the top team in our league. |
| So these two uses of however could be replaced by this expression right here, no matter how much. So it doesn't matter how much something. |
| For example, it doesn't matter how hard we tried, or in this case past tense, it didn't matter how hard we tried, we couldn't stop him from smoking. |
| So no matter what we did, it didn't matter how hard we tried, this was something we were unable to do. |
| So this is a long expression, no matter how much is a long expression. However is much shorter. Same thing in the second sentence. |
| However badly we wanted to win, again past tense, we couldn't beat the top team in our league. So no matter how much we wanted to win is another way to say this. |
| So no matter how much might sound a little bit more casual. However, using however in this way, sounds a little bit more formal. |
| So if you want to express something in a more polite way, you could use however instead of no matter how much. So you'll see however, you'll notice here, positioned at the beginning of these expressions. So it's like your no matter how much statement, however comes at the beginning of that. We don't see it at the end. |
| Okay, so with that then, let's continue on to the last use of however. We use however to express surprise or shock. Like you might know the expression, how on earth? So I have here a question mark and an exclamation point. We can informally, we can use these two together to show like surprise and a question at the same time. |
| So this is kind of a formal expression and it's a little uncommon. We don't use this so much. So when we want to express shock, oftentimes about like a negative situation or like a really surprising situation, we could use this. For example, however are we going to get home tonight? The car has been stolen. |
| So this is a really shocking situation. |
| Using however here though makes the speaker's shock sound rather formal. So I would say this is probably not like a really the first, this is not kind of the first thing and most native speakers would say. I think today most native speakers would say how are we going to get home? However, there are some cases where however could be used to express shock like this, like a really formal shock. However are we going to get home? You can think of this like how on earth are we going to get home? So it really kind of elevates, it levels up that shock and surprise feeling. |
| One more example, however did you find the answer to this question? So again, surprise kind of shock. We really want to know how on earth did you find the answer to this question? I'm really surprised. However did you find? So we use these two for polite shock, but again it's fairly uncommon. This is not a pattern that I use very much. |
| You might see this perhaps in like movies or tv from time to time, but again not so common in everyday speech. So these are three ways to use however. |
| With that in mind, let's move on to nevertheless. So nevertheless basically means even though, even though something, something else, so even though a b is kind of the field. |
| Let's look at some examples first. We got lost driving in a new city. Nevertheless, we made it to the airport on time and many said her dream project couldn't be done. |
| Nevertheless, she continued working to achieve it. So in both of these sentences we see nevertheless comes at the beginning of the second sentence. When we use nevertheless in this way, it means even though the thing previously said. |
| So even though this thing in sentence one, so a nevertheless comma b is a very common pattern with nevertheless. Same thing here, many said her dream project couldn't be done is our a statement. Nevertheless, so nevertheless meaning even though many said her dream project couldn't be done, she continued working to achieve it. |
| So what's the difference? Why should I use nevertheless instead of even though? Nevertheless sounds a bit more formal than even though. |
| If you want something to sound a little bit more serious, um less casual, you could use nevertheless in a pattern like these. So we essentially keep the meaning of even though we just make kind of a different sentence structure there. |
| Okay, so with this in mind then I want to go to despite and then we'll compare these two. So despite just like nevertheless means even though actually yes, but when we use despite we need to build different sentence structures. So let's look at the examples. First, I ran out of time to style my hair before an important meeting. |
| Despite that, my presentation went well. One more, despite the fact that she arrived late at the airport, she made it to the conference on time. |
| So you might notice here I'm not using despite alone. In my first example sentence, I'm using despite that. My second sentence, despite the fact that. |
| This is a key difference between despite and nevertheless. When we use despite, we have to connect it to a noun phrase. |
| When we use nevertheless, we do not. So this is the key difference between these two. So when I say connect despite to a noun phrase, I mean patterns like these. |
| Despite that, where that is your a statement. So despite that means the statement that came before. That means despite the fact I ran out of time to style my hair before an important meeting, so even though this happened, my presentation went well. |
| That's what it means. So we have to use that or maybe this as well. That could be okay depending on your situation. So we have to use that. We cannot use just despite. We can't do that. We must include that noun phrase. So some common examples of that as I said despite that or despite the fact that as I've done here or just despite a b. |
| So I don't have an example sentence here, but we could change one of these sentences to use just despite at the beginning of the sentence. So for example, despite my favorite donut shop being open every day, I didn't go this morning for example. So you could make an example sentence or you could make a sentence an a statement here and attach it directly to despite, but essentially it has to be some kind of noun phrase. |
| We need to use something in direct connection to despite here. So this is a key difference with nevertheless. So we always follow nevertheless or I'm sorry we always introduce our a point and then introduce nevertheless. So it's like a nevertheless b. It will always follow that pattern. So one more point I want to mention here is the very closely related in spite of. So in spite of, we can actually use this to replace replace despite. They have the same meaning, the same function. Just be careful. |
| We use in spite of as a phrase, as a set phrase to mean despite. So for example, in spite of that or in spite of the fact that or in spite of a b. |
| So if you want to use in spite of, you can. You can replace despite with in spite of. So to summarize all of this over here, nevertheless we can think of nevertheless like despite that. Then we can think of despite as equal to in spite of and we can think of nevertheless as in spite of that. So these are kind of the equivalents, the things that are equal to each other when we're using these words. |
| So yes, they all mean even though. They have the same meaning, but it's just that the way we make the sentence is a little bit different. |
| So I hope that this helps. I'll say too that I feel despite is a little more commonly used. Despite that or despite the fact that is a little more commonly used than nevertheless or in spite of, but actually everything is common, but I think the most common perhaps is despite from this group. Okay, so this is a quick introduction to however, nevertheless and despite and in spite of. If you have any questions or comments or if there's something else you would like to know about this topic, please let us know in the comment section of this video. |
| Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye. |
Comments
Hide