in spite of he fact ~ ?

[lsujang]

On the upgrade, the Audi maintained traction with no difficulty, in spite of
he fact that it was equipped only with the standard Continental 195/65 R 15
all-weather tires.

I think that in spite of is followed by a noun, a pronoun or -ing.

So, above he fact has to be changed to his fact?

[Hanka]

I think "in spite of THE fact" is correct

[Tdol]

I agree- we can use 'in spite of the fact that' before a verb phrase.

[Spiral]

To add to the discussion:

in spite of is a multi-word preposition. Many times, we can use shorter expressions to say the same thing. For example, in the example lsujang provided, we could simply replace in spite of the fact that with although or even in spite of with despite if we wanted.

[Tdol]

We'd have to change it around to use despite/in spite of:

Although it was equipped
Despite being equipped
etc

[Spiral]

We'd have to change it around to use despite/in spite of:

Although it was equipped
Despite being equipped
etc

That's not what I'm trying to say. I guess I wasn't clear?

I'm trying to say that instead of saying, "in spite of the fact that," you could say, "despite the fact that." I was trying to say to replace "in spite of the fact that" with "although" or , if you don't want to do that, replace "in spite of" with "despite."

[Tdol]

Clear now.