にも関わらず【にもかかわらず】

にもかかわらず means "despite", "even though": the second half of the sentence is not what the first half would lead you to expect. It goes after the plain form of a verb or an い-adjective. A な-adjective takes な or である in front of it, and a noun takes it directly or with である – never with だ.

• × 危険だにもかかわらず → 危険なにもかかわらず / 危険であるにもかかわらず

It is usually written in kana. The kanji spelling にもかかわら関わらず is common too, and so is the older にもかかわら拘らず.

にもかかわらず or のに

のに means the same and is what you say in conversation, often with some disappointment or complaint in it. にもかかわらず is formal and more detached: news, reports, essays, speeches.

Like のに, it reports what actually happened. The second half cannot be a request, an invitation or what you intend to do.

• × 雨にもかかわらず、行きましょう → 雨でも行きましょう

にもかかわらず or にかかわらず

Without も, にかかわらず is a different pattern: "regardless of", "whether or not". It follows a noun that covers a range – age, weather, experience – and says the outcome does not depend on it.

At the start of a sentence

On its own at the head of a sentence, にもかかわらず means "nevertheless" and points back to the sentence before.