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My health hasn't improved although I take prescribed medicine regularly.

If I rewrite this sentence by using " In spite of ", should the pronoun "I" be put or not? For example:

In spite of I taking prescribed medicine regularly, my health hasn't improved.

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  • Despite is the more fitting word here. Preposition meaning "without being affected by; in spite of."
    – lurker
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 0:37
  • How about In spite of me taking precribed medicine regularly,my health has not improved.
    – Hla Moe
    Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 9:03

2 Answers 2

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The preposition phrase in spite of requires that a noun phrase of some kind must follow it - you can't just put a sentence there.

The correct phrasing is:

In spite of taking prescribed medicine regularly, my health hasn't improved.

The noun phrase taking prescribed medicine regularly refers to the act, and the person doing it, which was previously I, is now provided by the second part of the sentence, my health hasn't improved.

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  • I'd like to add that people sometimes say "in spite of me/my [participle]". I'm not sure how "correct" this is, but you can use this to specify the subject of the "in spite of" clause if it differs from the other clause: "Our team lost the game, in spite of me scoring 9 goals".
    – Senjougahara Hitagi
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 22:50
  • @SenjougaharaHitagi Isn't the subject of the gerund a possessive pronoun?
    – V.Lydia
    Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 16:35
  • @V.Lydia Logically it "should" be, but I hear people use "me/you/etc." all the time.
    – Senjougahara Hitagi
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 7:14
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In addition to the above answer, you could also say "in spite of my taking medicine regularly". The subject of the gerund is a possessive pronoun.

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