Despite or Although?

'although'

you would more normally (here at least) say 'despite that', 'despite the fact that', 'despite [X] yyy-ing (eg being/having)...' although some people do simply say 'despite', I'm not sure what proportion.

d

The main difference is that despite creates a stronger contrast/stress between two statements. You may want this 'although' is much

Thanks

I know a grammar rule.

Although -> SVO (Subject/Verb/Object)

Despite -> Noun or Noun Phrase

I think, in this sentence although is grammatically correct. Am I wrong?

Yes, 'although' is good - I realise my one line at the start of what I wrote was a bit enigmatic

I'm not so good at explai

meteorquakeDespite that it was eaten

I find that very unnatural In fact, I would say that it was incorrect.I would use only 'Despite the fact that it was eaten' here.

Yes it is unnatural to me too!
But some people I think say it.
d

Sorry I thought you were referring to the other.
This would be more appropriate to something like an apple with maggots in:-
Despite that it was eaten, he still ate it.
d

Try googling this (include the quote marks):-
"Despite that it"

Google is notoriously unreliability for checking the acceptability if expressions. I have just googled "I ain't done it", in quotation marks, and got 1,850,000 hits. That is not going to convince me that that is acceptable standard English.

I checked the rather more reliable Corpus of Contemptoray English. Of the first 100 citations for 'despite that', all but two were followed by a comma

Well my approach is that rules aren't handed down as laws by a hierarchy for the masses to follow, but instead are created as an attempt to describe what proficient speakers are doing. In the past, it was hard to interview people to assess what everyone did across the country, and determining grammar from printed books was very selective.
With the rise of the internet, rules in a grammar book