ESL Although, Though, Even though, Despite, In spite of, However

Do you know differences between although,even though, despite and however ?

It's very confusing.Today I learned about that from Coach Shane. He gave a very very useful lesson.

Here's a question. What is correct?

1. Although he is fat, he's very fast.
2. Even though he is fat, he's very fast.
3. Despite his being fat, he's very fast.
4. He's fat; however, he's very fast.

All of them are correct.
But one of these is just not quite right.

Can you figure out which sentence that might be ?
How could you change the sentence to make a sounds natural by just changing fat and fast-their position ?

There are General Rule of Thumb. We can call them heuristics. And Heuristics are rules of thumbs. For example rules that your grandmother makes are they in the law books? Nope~
But if grandmother says "Do this ! " then we should do that.

Heuristics for although .
"Although He is fat, he's very fast" is o.k.
But it's more common to hear "Although he is fast, he is very FAT!"
That's just the rule of thumbs.

It is confusing. Just remember any pattern is going to be ok.
However if you want a heuristics then you should remember below.



(AL)THOUGH	Positive, negative
EVEN THOUGH	Negative, positive
IN SPITE OF	Positive, negative
OTHERS	~