0

He escaped several times but was finally caught. If the sentence has to be started with 'In spite of', which of the following will be correct? 1. In spite of his escaping several times, he has finally been caught. Or, 2. In spite of escaping several times, he was finally caught.

Similarly, which is grammatically more correct? 'In spite of his being poor, he was happy.' or 'In spite of being poor, he was happy.'

ManiTan
  • 1
  • Usage of in spite of is fine. But why are you choosing between present perfect and past simple? – Aleks N. Feb 20 '14 at 15:03
  • In spite of escaping several times, he was returned to jail when caught. – Elliott Frisch Feb 20 '14 at 15:08
  • I just wanted to know whether present perfect would meet the need more appropriately than past simple; although my intuition does suggest that the simple past version is fine! – ManiTan Feb 20 '14 at 15:42
  • Depends on whether you're telling a story or describing recent events. – Aleks N. Feb 20 '14 at 16:11
  • Both OP's usages are nonsensical. If he escaped several times, he was obviously caught after each escape (except maybe the last one). There's no "logical contrast" between escaping several times and being caught again (regardless of whether context tells us that he never escaped again, which in any case wouldn't be conveyed by "finally caught". The poor/happy contrast would normally be expressed using *despite*, as I assume will be explained in the above link. – FumbleFingers Feb 20 '14 at 17:36

0 Answers0