“Despite” and “in spite of” have the same concessive role and are followed by a noun phrase or -ing form rather than a finite clause introduced directly after them.
“Forget + -ing” concerns whether an earlier event remains in memory. “Forget + to-infinitive” means the intended action was not remembered and therefore may not have been done.
“Hear” normally presents sound perception as an event or natural process; “listen” presents deliberate attention. Before an object, “listen” normally takes “to.”
With noun phrases, “do” often focuses on carrying out an activity or task, while “make” often focuses on creating or producing an outcome. Many combinations are fixed collocations and must be learned as such.
