Although the beach was crowded, we still had a lovely day. I ate the whole sandwich, although it tasted terrible. My dog is friendly, although he barks loudly. Although Gloria studied, she still failed.
“Although Tammy was tired, she continued to study. ” “I love pizza, although it gives me heartburn. ” “Although my family drives me crazy, I couldn’t live without them. ” “We danced all night, although we took several breaks for food and water. ”
For example, in the sentence, “Although the beach was crowded, we still had a lovely day,” the noun that follows although is “the beach. ” In the sentence, “I ate the whole sandwich, although it tasted terrible,” the pronoun “it” stands in for “sandwich” in the second half of the sentence.
For example, in the sentence, “My dog is friendly, although he barks loudly,” the verb that follows the subject is “barks. ” In the sentence, “Although I studied, I still failed,” the verb that follows the subject is “studied. ”
Instead of “Although Gloria studied, she still failed,” you could say “Although Gloria studied daily, she still failed the math test. ” The addition of “daily” and “the math test” gives more information about how much Gloria studied and what she failed. Instead of “I ate the whole sandwich, although it tasted terrible, you might say, “I quickly ate the whole sandwich, although it tasted like rotten eggs. ” The addition of “quickly” describes how you ate the sandwich while swapping “terrible” with “rotten eggs” adds detail about the unpleasant flavor of the sandwich.
“Despite” and “in spite of” may also sound somewhat formal, so you may want to reserve these words for more formal communications as well.
For example, you could not swap “although” for “though” in this sentence: “Yesterday, though, the mall was busy. ” In this instance, “though” is an adverb rather than a conjunction. Placing “although” in the sentence would not work because the sentence doesn’t need a conjunction. Likewise, you cannot replace “though” with “although” in a sentence that reads, “Things were about to get crazy, though, as a bus full of children arrived at the museum. ” Once again, “though” is an adverb and “although” would not work as it is a conjunction.
For example, a sentence that reads, “Although she was busy, she still made time for lunch,” would not work with “however” in place of “although. ” A sentence that reads, “However, there was no need for a second opinion,” would not work with “although” in its place since using “although” would indicate that a contrasting statement will follow this one. That would make the sentence a fragment.
For example, in the sentence, “We had a great time at the park, although it rained,” the comma comes before “although. ” This creates a pause that makes the sentence flow more smoothly. An exception would be if you included a second conjunction prior to “although,” such as “and” or “so. ” In these cases, the comma would go before the other conjunction. For example, “Near the end of the race I fell, and although I got back up right away, I did not win the race. ” In this sentence, “and” is also a conjunction, so it requires a comma before it.
“Although, the beach was beautiful. ” “We had a fun time, although. ” “Although, they lost their money. ”
