"למרות כל זה, אני שמח."

Translation: Despite all this, I am happy.

[JessicaDellEra]

We don't use "of" after "despite." You could say "In spite of all this..."

[a.feld_]

Shouldn't "Despite it all, I am happy" be accepted? Considering the ambiguity of זה meaning that/it as well as this?

[sam.eckmann]

In this particular case, no. Despite it all would be למרות הכל.

[NaftaliFri1]

accepted for me

[firerosearien]

Could it not also be "despite every thing?"

[Hamutaltul]

I disagree with @NaftaliFri1, the general meaning of the sentence is the same, but "Despite all this", "Despite all of this" and "In spite of all this" are much more accurate translation (because "despite every thing" is "למרות הכל" "while the examples means "למרות כל זה")

[tsuj1g1r1]

To elaborate on your point: "Despite all of this" implies you're referring specifically to what you just said, whereas "despite everything" keeps it more open-ended. Still, while I agree that it is a more accurate translation, this is a Hebrew course, not one of semantics, after all, and this sentence does come void of context, so we want to make the experience as focused for the learner as possible. If somebody translates it to "everything", they obviously understand the sentence and should not be penalised.

[NaftaliFri1]

Yes

[sylgua]

What is The correction answer?

[zulu734872]

what about "in spite of it all" guys? the little green owl rejected it.

[TeribleT]

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/in-spite-of-and-despite

[JimCopelan1]

Does למרות ever have gender changes or is it always למרות?

[IngeborgHa14]

Well, לַמְרוֹת is originally the contracted form (לְהַמְרוֹת -> לַמְרוֹת) of the infinitive of the Hiphil הִמְרַה to defy, which is used in Is 3.8 לשונם ומעלליהם אל יהוה למרות עני כבודו their tongue and their acts are against YHWH, defying the eyes of his glory. But having become a preposition now, it can only be followed by a noun (בָּא רַק לִפְנֵי שֵׁם), not a suffixed prononun.

[Joshua653253]

Woah, a rare case where the English and Hebrew sentences have the same words and word order.

[Theresa754142]

It seems rare to you? It seems to me that modern Hebrew follows English word order to an amazing degree, except for adjectives and possessives and probably a lot of other things we’ll learn later but these two come to mind now.

Try Japanese for a mind-boggling difference. “When I arrived at the store” word order is I am store to arrived time.

[YardenNB]

If it weren't for this itching "am"...

[BrunoCatMa]

I wrtited there a "still" and it was incorrect... "I am still happy" this is more reasonable...

[IngeborgHa14]

Not necessarily. Maybe a person learns through hardships happiness in what they have. You would need an עֲדַיִן still in the Hebrew sentence.