0

  1. With all his wealth, he has no joy in his life.

  2. Besides all his wealth, he has no joy in his life.

  3. Despite of all his wealth, he has no joy in his life.

Actually it appeared in an exam and their answer key is showing the first one as the correct answer, but I don't think so. Please clarify.

Improve this question
5
  • 3
    All three are grammatically correct but they mean different things. "With" in the first is used to mean "In spite of" and means much the same as number 3. The second (meaning "aside from") indicates that his only joy in life is his wealth. I prefer "Despite" to "Despite of" but others don't.
    – Ronald Sole
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 16:17
  • The third choice is not grammatically incorrect English. Despite of uses despite in its archaic meaning as a noun. Despite is itself a preposition here, rendering the preposition of superfluous. Without the preposition of, the third choice is grammatical. Without knowing exactly how the question was posed, it is impossible to say what "correct" means here. I suspect that the question asks for the best answer (or that the exam was written by a non-native speaker.)
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 21:51
  • "Despite all of his wealth, he has no joy in his life" is the simplest change you can make to (3) to make it correct. "Despite his wealth, he has no joy in life" is probably how I'd say it ("all of" and "his" seem redundant).
    – user32344
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 22:40
  • 1
    @P.E.Dant you probably meant either that the third choice is not gramatically correct or that the third choice is gramatically incorrect English.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 3:49
  • 1
    @AlanEvangelista Right you are. The first sentence should read: "The third choice is not grammatically correct English", and the comment should address Mr Sole. Too late to edit now, though.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 20:16

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
-1

Broadly, all are wrong.

“With all his wealth, he has no joy in his life” is a mistaken version of two alternatives: 

“With all his wealth, he has no joy in life”

“With all his wealth, there is no joy in his life”

The same is true in both the other sentences.

“Besides all his wealth, he has no joy in life” presents two problems:

If “Beside(s)” was appropriate “Beside”, not “Besides” would be needed.

Either way, neither “Beside” nor “Besides” is negative, as for instance “In
spite of…”; both mean, roughly, something positive like “As well as…”

“Despite of all his wealth, he has no joy in life” is a mistaken version of two alternatives:

“Despite all his wealth, he has no joy in life / there is no joy in his
life”

“In spite of all his wealth, he has no joy in life / there is no joy in his
life”
Improve this answer
5
  • IMHO "He has no joy in his life" is not wrong, although it is indeed usual to omit the possessive pronoun in this sentence.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 3:51
  • As you said that "With all his wealth, he has no joy in his life” is wrong and “With all his wealth, he has no joy in life” is correct, I understood you were saying that the former was wrong because of the possessive pronoun. Have I misunderstood it? If so, it'd be nice to edit the answer to make it clearer.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Apr 7, 2020 at 19:49
  • Alan, if you're looking at me, please note I started with "Broadly"! In conversation with fluent speakers, no-one is likely to complain about slipping into those terms… but they are so unusual, they'd more likely be termed unidiomatic. As the basis for any exam, the more so an ESL exam, they seem highly inappropriate, at best. Even so, if the Question really was "{With/Besides/Despite of} all his wealth … which version of this sentence is correct?" then the first, "With…" would clearly be best.
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 17:13
  • I think I understand now. It'd be nice to distinguish which sentences are (grammatically) wrong and which ones are unidiomatic in your answer.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 17:24
  • To test whether you understand now, why not try to paraphrase it?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 17:35

You must log in to answer this question.