にもかかわらず・にも関わらず - Grammar Discussion

Grammar Points
#1

despite
in spite of
regardless
nevertheless

Structure

  • Verb + にもかかわらず
  • いAdj+ にもかかわらず
  • なAdj + である + にもかかわらず
  • Noun + (である) + にもかかわらず

:warning: Do not confuse with にかかわらず

[AにもかかわらずB, Despite A, B.・Used to express contrast・Formal language 「〜のに」硬い言い方]

[lit. “not being affected by”]

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#2

"全すべての物体ぶったいは、その大小だいしょう にもかかわらず 、真空しんくうにおいては同おなじ速度そくどで落下らっかする。

All objects, regardless of their size, fall at the same speed in a vacuum."

This is the only example that uses ‘regardless’;

Can I also use にかかわらず here?

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#3

It’s mentioned to be Formal in several different places, but the Register has it marked as Casual?

#4

間隔があいたにもかかわらず、相変わらずいいプレーをしますね。
Even though a space opened, they made a nice play, like usual.

Is this a sports reference? I’m curious what sort of open space and play could be related to each other.

#5

I keep getting this mixed up with 割に. Like, there are example sentences where the bolded text will be “Despite” and it’ll say “Contrastive, Unexpected” and I’m not sure where to use 割に and where to use にもかかわらず and I’ve gotten the two of them mixed up more times than I can count over the past year.

It feels like this should be one of those cases where it doesn’t mark you wrong, but instead says something like “try a different grammar point” or whatever it says. But since it doesn’t say that, I must be missing something… ?

#6

If I look through example sentences for にもかかわらず, I think actually none of them can be replaced with わりに. And some examples in わりに can probably be replaced with にもかかわらず, but the meaning will become a little different.

I think of (X)わりに(Y) as “for someone/something that is X, this is surprisingly Y”.
And (X)にもかかわらず as “in spite of”.
Both can be translated as “despite”, but the meaning is different, isn’t it.

Maybe looking through explanations of these constructions in another source/textbook could help to contrast them?

#7

what’s throwing me off is that in the example sentences for both, they’re both asking for “despite” and they both say “Contrastive, Unexpected.” When I see those, I think either grammar point can work and it feels weird when one works and not the other. Just doesn’t make sense to me.

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