although vs despite?

[mohan514]

can anybody differentiate between the context where although and despite be used..

are there conditions where both can be interchangeably used??

[machichi]

Although can be followed by adjectives and nouns (subjects). It tells the reader you're about to make a statement and you have already taken such and such contradiction into account.

Although I love cookie...
Although famous, these cookies...

Despite can be followed by gerunds and nouns (objects). It is stronger than although.

Despite his love of cookies...
Despite eating these cookies...

Their meanings are very similar but their grammar usage is different, meaning they cannot be used without modifying the sentence.

[Jim@StratusPrep]

Honestly, these are issues that you should not be focusing on during SC problems. There will always be larger issues to focus on in the sentence. While there are subtle differences only focus on this if these two words are the only difference between two answer choices.