Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: He did not succeed despite of his hard work.

Correct — B. Despite is a complete preposition on its own and does not take of. The error is the extra word in despite of.

Drop of and the rest stands: despite + the noun phrase his hard work.

He did not succeed despite his hard work → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  in spite of his working hard — in spite of correctly takes of, and his working hard is a grammatical gerund phrase. But it rewrites the noun phrase his hard work when only one word needed to go.
• (c)
  although his hard work — although is a conjunction and needs a full clause with a verb. His hard work is only a noun phrase, so although his hard work is ungrammatical.
• (d)
  although he worked hard — although he worked hard is a correct clause, but it recasts the phrase as a clause. Option (b) fixes the one error in the original and keeps its wording.

Two families express contrast. Prepositions — despite, in spite of — take a noun, a pronoun or an -ing form: despite the rain, in spite of being tired. Conjunctions — although, though, even though — take a full clause: although it rained.

Despite and in spite of mean the same, but only in spite of contains of. Despite of mixes the two and is wrong.

Before a clause, despite needs the fact that: despite the fact that he worked hard.

Key facts

• Despite takes no of: despite the delay.
• In spite of needs all three words: in spite of the delay.
• Although and though are conjunctions and take a clause: although the train was late.
• Before a clause, despite needs the fact that: despite the fact that the train was late.

Common traps

• Keeping of because in spite of has it
• Choosing although his hard work, which pairs a conjunction with a bare noun phrase

No directly related past PYQ was found.