Despite only having 90 seconds, Finn teaches linking words of contrast

Finn Hi, this is Finn with another BBC English Class. And today we’re looking at linking words of contrast . What are they? Things like despite and although - they’re really just fancy ways of saying but ! So, let’s look at a few of these and the differences between how to use them in just 90 seconds.

Look this way. Here are our lovely linking words of contrast . How do we use them? Well, look at these sentences:

He earns a small salary. He loves to wear expensive clothes. They’re actually clauses, yeah? They function as clauses. And only one group of these linking words can go with clauses. Which are they? This group here [though, although, even though]. Let’s move that to one side…

So, we can put these either at the beginning or the middle - in front of this clause or this clause. So have a look:

Though he earns a small salary, he loves to wear expensive clothes. Or…

Although , or even though he earns a small salary, he loves to wear expensive clothes. Why not? OK…

Or we could put them in the middle:

He earns a small salary, although he loves to wear expensive clothes.

Right, now, what about the other two? Despite and in spite of . Well, these go in front of a noun or in front of a gerund. So, we’ve got a couple of those here: ‘his small salary’ and ‘having a small salary’. So, let’s have a look at it this time.

He loves to wear expensive clothes despite or in spite of having a small salary. Or, despite or in spite of his small salary. And we have just run out of time. I did that very quickly so do go to our website bbclearningenglish.com to find this programme and look at the grammar in a bit more detail and do a test to test yourself. I’ve been Finn, you’ve been fantastic and we did it despite having only 90 seconds. See you!