This question is from Brazil, from Diones. The question has to do with the difference between the words “despite” and “ in spite of”.
Well, both “despite” and “in spite of” mean the same thing, they are both prepositions or used as prepositions and basically the expressions both mean that even though sometime has happened or has not happened. It’s used to express an opposite idea, “I am going despite the rain” means even though it’s raining or although it’s raining I am going to go, so you were expecting not to go because it’s raining but I say that doesn’t matter, I am going to go despite the rain. “I am going to go in spite of the rain” means exactly the same thing.
both these again are prepositions, the similar idea can be expressed by a conjunction, such as “even though”, even though means the same but it’s used differently in the sentence because even though is what we call a conjunction and a conjunction you probably know is a word that joins two parts of the sentence, usually two different clauses that has subject and verb each one. So for example you could say “even though it’s raining, I am going to go”. Notice that both parts of the sentence “even though it’s raining” and “I am going to go” have a subject and a verb. In the previous example with despite, there is no subject and verb. “despite the rain, I am going to go” notice that “despite the rain” there is no verb. You cannot say “despite it’s raining” or “in spite of it’s raining” and you can’t say “even though the rain, I am going to go” neither of those cases are correct. If you use “even though”, it must be used with a subject and a verb as part of the clause and if you use “despite” or “in spite of” as prepositions, there is no verb. So somewhat complicated but I hope that makes sense to you.
