# But (pero, sino)



## Dymn

English _but _can be translated in two different ways into Spanish (_pero _and _sino_). It basically depends on whether we bind two apparently contradictory facts (1) or we deny one of them while affirming the other one (2). We have two schemes then:

1. (_pero_) A, but B. _He’s smart, but very lazy._
2. (_sino_) Not A, but B. _Her name isn’t Alice, but Abigail._

Do you have this difference in your language?

We do in Catalan, “pero” is _però _and “sino” is _sinó_.


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## apmoy70

Greek has only one, the conj. *«αλλά»* [aˈla] --> _but, however_ < Classical adv. *«ἀλλά» ăllắ* (idem) which is the acc. pl. of adj. *«ἄλλος» ắllŏs* --> _other_, used as an adverb (PIE *h₂el-io- _other_ cf  Skt. अरण (araṇa), Lat. alius, Proto-Germanic *aljaz > Ger. Elend, Eng. else, Dt. ellende; Arm. այլ (ayl), _other_).
However, colloquially, for (2) one could alternatively use the conj. *«μα»* [ma] --> _but_, which is a late Byzantine borrowing from the late Latin ma < Lat. magis > It. ma/mai, Fr. mais, Catalan més.


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## Encolpius

*Hungarian *- we do have: 

1. Okos, *de* lusta
2. Nem Alicenek hívják, *hanem *Abigailnek.


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## ger4

German as well:

1. _Er ist intelligent, *aber* sehr faul. _
2. _Sie heißt nicht Alice, *sondern* Abigail. _


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## Encolpius

How interesting: 1st sentence: Hungarian 3 words, German 6 words.


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## ger4

Encolpius said:


> How interesting: 1st sentence: Hungarian 3 words, German 6 words.


Mark Twain was right: 


> “_mastery of the art and spirit of the Germanic language enables a man to travel all day in one sentence without changing cars_“


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## Hector9

También "but" puede ser traducido como "excepto" y/o "salvo" en Español.

"Spanish is spoken everywhere in South America _but _Brazil"


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## ger4

Estonian distinguishes between _*aga*_ and _*vaid*_:

1. _Ta on andekas, *aga* väga laisk._
2. _Tema nimi ei ole Alice, *vaid* Abigail._

In other contexts, _*vaid*_ can be translated as 'just' or 'only':
- _mõtle vaid!_ = just imagine!
- _on vaid ettekujutus_ = it's just (only) an illusion
- _vaid aeg-ajalt_ = only now and then, only from time to time


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## Armas

In Finnish we have it: 1. _mutta_ 2. _vaan_.


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## 810senior

Japanese, too:
1.彼は頭こそ切れる*が*、とても怠け者だ。kare-wa atama-koso kireru-*ga*, totemo namakemono-da. (*ga *means but)
lit. he-[topic marker] head-[particle for emphasis] cut-but very loafer-be. (his head is clever, but very lazy)
*_atama-ga-kireru_(lit. the head is cut) is an idiom that means smart, clever etc.

2.彼女の名前はアリス*ではなく*、アビゲイルである。 kanojo-no namae-wa alice-*dewanaku *abigail-dearu. (*dewa-naku, *inf. dewa-nai, is a negative conjunctive form of *dearu*, almost equivalent to *be *in English)
lit. her[genitive] name-[topic marker] alice-benot abigali-be. (her name isn't Alice but Abigali)


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## Hans Molenslag

Encolpius said:


> How interesting: 1st sentence: Hungarian 3 words, German 6 words.


English has 6 words too in this case (or 5 if you prefer to count the contracted form _he's_ as one word).

To express a concept of a certain complexity, some languages use more words and some languages use more inflections. Are there any languages that obtain the same degree of accuracy with both a limited number of words and a limited number of inflections?


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## ilocas2

Croatian:

1. *ali*
2. *već* (= already) or *nego* (= than)


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## Medune

In Portuguese:
1.A, mas B
1.A, pero/peró B (archaic)   

2.Não A, e sim B
2.Não A, mas sim B


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## apmoy70

apmoy70 said:


> Greek has only one, the conj. *«αλλά»* [aˈla] --> _but, however_ < Classical adv. *«ἀλλά» ăllắ* (idem) which is the acc. pl. of adj. *«ἄλλος» ắllŏs* --> _other_, used as an adverb (PIE *h₂el-io- _other_ cf  Skt. अरण (araṇa), Lat. alius, Proto-Germanic *aljaz > Ger. Elend, Eng. else, Dt. ellende; Arm. այլ (ayl), _other_).
> However, colloquially, for (2) one could alternatively use the conj. *«μα»* [ma] --> _but_, which is a late Byzantine borrowing from the late Latin ma < Lat. magis > It. ma/mai, Fr. mais, Catalan més.


Apologies for quoting myself but I forgot (again) to write the two sentences:
_He’s smart, but very lazy - _«Είναι έξυπνος *αλλά* οκνηρός» [ˈine ˈek͡sipnos aˈla okniˈɾos]
_Her name isn’t Alice, but Abigail -_ «Το όνομά της δεν είναι Αλίκη *αλλά* Αβιγαία» [to ˈonoˌma͜ tis ðen ˈine aˈlici aˈla aviʝe.a] or «...*μα* Αβιγαία» [...ma aviʝe.a]


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## franknagy

Encolpius said:


> How interesting: 1st sentence: Hungarian 3 words, German 6 words.


The conterpart of "ist" copula is zero in Hungarian.
The "sehr" = "very" = Hungarian "nagyon" is _superfluous. _That's way it is missing from the Hungarian translation.


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## Encolpius

The thing is I did not spot there was "very". 
But Frank is right, if you need idiomatic translation we should forget linguistic studies.


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## SuperXW

Chinese has to differentiate the followings. As Hector9 has pointed out, there is a third usage of "but".

1. A, but B.
但, 但是, 可是, 然而...

2. Not A, but B.
而是

*3. Everyone but(except) A.*
除了


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## DearPrudence

In *French*, we have only one word for both cases: "*mais*".

(but we have two words for "yes".
"*oui*" after a question. _"Tu es content ?" "Oui" ("Are you happy? Yes")_
"*si*" after a negative question._ "Tu n'es pas content ? "Si" (Aren't you happy? I am"))_


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## ger4

An addition to German:


Holger2014 said:


> 1. _Er ist intelligent, *aber* sehr faul._
> 2. _Sie heißt nicht Alice, *sondern* Abigail._





Hector9 said:


> "Spanish is spoken everywhere in South America _but _Brazil"


3. _Spanisch wird überall in Südamerika gesprochen, *außer* in Brasilien_.


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## Encolpius

Diamant7 said:


> 2. (_sino_) Not A, but B. _Her name isn’t Alice, but Abigail. _



I've just  realized there is a mysterious coincidence.
Spanish *sino *[< si + no (if-not)]  Hungarian *hanem *[ha if + nem not]


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## 123xyz

Macedonian:

*но, ама* - but (pero)
*туку* - but (sino)

So, we do have this distinction. There is also a non-standard equivalent of "туку", namely "него", which coincides with the pronoun "him". Meanwhile, "ама" is less formal than "но", but both are standard. Finally, "а", which usually means "whether" and is thus more similar to the pero-meaning of "but", can be used in the same way as "туку" in some cases, mostly when the negation is right before, forming a parallel structure, e.g. in "I want not bread but cake", rather than "I don't want bread but cake".


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## spindlemoss

Not in Welsh. We use *ond *for both.

1.  A, but B. _Mae'n beniog *ond* yn ddiog._
2. Not A, but B. _Nid Alice yw ei henw hi, *ond* Abigail._


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## Ectab

Arabic:
1-هو ذكي *لكنه* كسول جداَ *laakinna *we could replace it with غير ان or الا ان but not always.
2-اسمها ليس اليس *بل *ابيغيل *bal *we could also replace it with إنما innamaa in this case but not always.


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## amikama

Hebrew: two different words.

1. הוא חכם *אבל *עצלן
2. שמה אינו אליס *אלא *אביגיל


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## elroy

Ectab said:


> Arabic:
> 1-هو ذكي *لكنه* كسول جداَ *laakinna *we could replace it with غير ان or الا ان but not always.
> 2-اسمها ليس اليس *بل *ابيغيل *bal *we could also replace it with إنما innamaa in this case but not always.


 This is true for Modern Standard Arabic.  In Palestinian Arabic, we use بس ("bas") for the first one, and for the second one we typically don't use anything.  We could use إنمّا ("innama") but it's not very common:

1. هو ذكي بس كسول كتير (huwwe zaki bas kasūl ktīr)
2. اسمها مش أليس، أبيغيل (isimha mish alīs, abigēl)

#2 glosses as _[her name] [not] [Alice], [Abigail]_.  The comma (a pause in speech) is essential.


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## Ectab

elroy said:


> This is true for Modern Standard Arabic.  In Palestinian Arabic, we use بس ("bas") for the first one, and for the second one we typically don't use anything.  We could use إنمّا ("innama") but it's not very common:



In Iraqi Arabic, we use the same as you use, bas for the first sentence and nothing for the second or we may use innamaa.


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## elroy

Ectab said:


> In Iraqi Arabic, we use the same as you use, bas for the first sentence and nothing for the second or we may use innamaa.


 What would the sentences be in Iraqi Arabic?


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## Ectab

elroy said:


> What would the sentences be in Iraqi Arabic?


1-هو ذكي *بس *كلش كسول
huwa dhakee *bas *kullish kassuul

2-اسمهه مو اليس (انما) ابيغيل
isimha mu alees (innamaa), abigel.
we can drop innamaa, but a better sentence would be:
اسمهه ابيغيل مو اليس
isimha abigel mu alees
her name is Abigail not Alice


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