Jason refuses to stop riding his motorcycle,.................. having already had three serious accidents.

A) although
B) however
C) despite
D) consequently
E) though

Hi,

The test-maker must have thought the correct answer to be C, but I wonder whether we can use "although, though, even though, while" with V-ing or having V3 in a reduced form as in this sentence or not.

Thank you.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: curious,

Your wondering is for good reason, Curious. A, C, and E work equally well in the sentence, besides though and even though.

The only one you've mentioned that doesn't work is while, which in this kind of construction I think is used more for comparisons of some sort rather than as a subordinator.

I was intrigued ... The Google Books stats are:

3 on "though having already had"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22though+having+alread...22&btnG=Search+Books

6 on "despite having already had"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22despite+having+alrea...22&btnG=Search+Books

1 on "although having already had"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22although+having+alre...22&btnG=Search+Books

which shows that indeed C (which I'd have bet on) is the most frequent, but the statistical sample is very small for all.

As Richard said, they seem all valid.

We can shorten the search pattern to get a larger sample:

157 on "though having already".
541 on "despite having already"
133 on "although having already"

which shows, IMO, that indeed C is to be preferred, but all are being used.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marius Hancu,

The instruction for these questions asks the testee to find the suitable expression which can be used in the blank. So we can say this is not a good question.

Hi, Richard. What about "much as"? Can it be used? "whereas" seems not possible at all.

Nope, Curious, those two can't be used.

(Although/despite/in spite of) having fought many battles, he felt so frightened in this one.

According to your previous discussion all of the above are interchangeable and correct???

Yes, Tonyjab. That's correct.

Welcome to the Grammar Exchange.

Dear Richard,
You advised me that sentence (A) below is stylistically awkward and something to be avoided by good writers, and sentence (B) is much better.

(A) Because of being found in one place on earth, a cemetery in Australia, Majors Creek orchids are now protected by a government agency.
(B) Because they are found in one place on earth, a cemetery in Australia, Majors Creek orchids are now protected by a government agency.
The syntax structure of the two sentences is as follows.
(A) Preposition + gerund
(B) Conjunction + clause

Let me compare following sentences again.
(C) Jason refuses to stop riding his motorcycle, despite having already had three serious accidents.
(D) Jason refuses to stop riding his motorcycle, although having already had three serious accidents.

In my opinion, the syntax structure of the second phrase is as follows.
(C) Preposition + gerund
“having” here should not be present participle because “despite" is preposition and present participle cannot be followed by preposition.
(D) Conjunction + present participle

In consideration of your previous suggestion about “because of”, I think sentence (D) is better than (C).
What do you think?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Yun,

I wonder why you call what comes after "despite" a present participle! It's not anymore;it is now a "gerund" but with adverbial meaning : "concession".
So I think it is correct.

Dear tonyjab,
Would you read my post once again?
I said "having" should not be present participle because despite is preposition, which means having is gerund.
Meantime, I am not talking about grammatical correctness.
I am asking which sentence is more natural and better in light of Richard's former explanation about "because of being".

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Yun,

Things got mixed up for me maybe. Sorry, though Yun.

Richard is offline today, or for much of the day. I am sure that he will respond as soon as he can.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rachel, Moderator,

Dear Rachel,
I would much appreciate it if I could get your advice as well.

Dear Richard,
You advised me that sentence (A) below is stylistically awkward and something to be avoided by good writers, and sentence (B) is much better.

(A) Because of being found in one place on earth, a cemetery in Australia, Majors Creek orchids are now protected by a government agency.
(B) Because they are found in one place on earth, a cemetery in Australia, Majors Creek orchids are now protected by a government agency.
The syntax structure of the two sentences is as follows.
(A) Preposition + gerund This really shouldn't be considered a gerund, Yun. Most grammarians today simply refer to it as the -ing form, which is triggered because it follows a preposition.
(B) Conjunction + clause

Let me compare following sentences again.
(C) Jason refuses to stop riding his motorcycle, despite having already had three serious accidents.
(D) Jason refuses to stop riding his motorcycle, although having already had three serious accidents.

In my opinion, the syntax structure of the second phrase is as follows.
(C) Preposition + -ing form
“having” here should not be present participle because “despite" is a preposition and the present participle cannot be followed by a preposition. Don't you have this backward? The -ing form here is followed by the preposition, not the other way around.
(D) Conjunction + present participle

In consideration of your previous suggestion about “because of”, I think sentence (D) is better than (C).
What do you think? I think they're both okay, though awkwardly phrased. If anything, I prefer C because it's less wordy.

Thank you very much, Richard.
I am still in chaos, though.
It is very difficult to find a general rule that I can apply to practical usage.

Ah, my friend, now you've touched on a crucial point about language learning. It isn't rocket science -- in fact, it isn't science at all -- and approaching it that way will continually lead to frustration.

In my more than 35 years of language teaching I've seen that adults who try to analyze every single aspect of a foreign language that they're learning usually end up mastering that language more slowly those who analyze less and just accept more. So please don't feel that you're "in chaos," my friend. We have an expression in English that describes perfectly what I'm saying here: "Go with the flow."

With 'despite,' 'having ...had' is the perfect gerund, and is correct in this sentence.

With 'although,' 'having...had' is a reduced adjective clause. It's reduced from 'although he had already had.' So in this case, 'having ...had' is a perfect participle.

The sentence with 'although having...had' is heavy. It is not used much these days. There are a few examples in the New York Times, most of which are over a hundred years old. Here's one:

Although having had the custody of the books of the Rocky Fork Company, he could not recall any important facts concerning -them, nor could he give any ...