[Grammar] "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

[nininaz]

"In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

Hello all,

Are these sentences with or without 'possessive of gerund' correct? Is main sentence correct as well? (as there is no apostrophe S)

Main : "In spite of Reid failing to score himself, he helped Jones to score two goals."

My sentences:

"In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

"In spite of Reid's failing to score himself, he helped Jones to score two goals."

"In spite of him failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

"In spite of his failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

Many thanks.

 

[GoesStation]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

Both your sentences are grammatically correct but ambiguous; score himself sounds like something Reid has done to his own body.

 

[nininaz]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

score himself sounds like something Reid has done to his own body.

Source:grammar in use

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

"Score himself" is fine.

I would use "despite not scoring..."

Or you could be positive and say he assisted on two goals, but did not score any himself.

(I guess you're talking about soccer. Do they call them "assists" in soccer? They do in hockey. The last players who help another score by passing the puck to him get scored an "assist" in their stats.)

 

[nininaz]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

"Score himself" is fine.

I would use "despite not scoring..."

Did you mean?

"Despite him not scoring, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

No. "Despite not scoring" is fine. At least in my dialect. You can add "him," but it's not necessary.

 

[jutfrank]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

I don't think in spite of works very well in this sentence. I would say Although Reid failed to score himself, he helped Jones to two goals.

 

[jutfrank]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

Re: Use of despite/in spite of/even though/although/but

Since these words can have different meanings, they are not always interchangeable. If you want a simple rule, use despite, in spite of and even though to show a contrast in expectation.

• Despite scoring three goals, he played very badly.
  
• Even though he broke his leg, he continued playing until the end.
  
• In spite of being a foot shorter than Reid, Jones beat him to the header.
  

You can see in each example that what happened went against what we would normally expect to happen.

Here are two examples with but and although:

Although he failed to score himself, he assisted two goals.
They didn't play well but at least they were better than last week.

There's no contrast of expectation in these examples. They aim to show a kind of concession.

 

[Rover_KE]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

.


I guess you're talking about soccer. Do they call them "assists" in soccer?

Yes, we do, and in most other countries outside the USA, we call it 'football'.

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: "In spite of failing to score himself, Reid helped Jones to score two goals."

That's cause we're exceptional!