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but English

Meaning but meaning

What does but mean?
Definitions in simple English

but

You use but to join two ideas and show that they are not the same. I would take you there, but I do not have my car. The changes were small but important. "Do you speak French?" "No, but I speak Spanish." It says this not in words but in pictures. You use but to change the topic. I understand. And I'm sorry. But there is nothing I can do about it now. And that's important, but another thing that has changed is the location.

but

except He ate everything but the meat. Any day but tomorrow would be fine. I forgot my bag. I guess there's nothing to do but go back.

but

only There is but one sun and one earth to live on.

but

(= merely, simply, just, only) and nothing more I was merely asking it is simply a matter of time just a scratch he was only a child hopes that last but a moment

Synonyms but synonyms

What other words have the same or similar meaning as but?

Topics but topics

What do people use but to talk about?
  • What conjunctions are in your language?
  • indirect evidence: the speaker claims not to have witnessed the situation, but does not specify further whether the evidence is reported or simply inferred.

Examples but examples

How do I use but in a sentence?

Simple sentences

My friends always say I'm too calm, but my family always says I'm too annoying.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
Speech is silver, but silence is golden.
I waited for an hour, but he didn't appear.
It is easy to love, but hard to be loved.
No one but Tom handed in the report.
But you like it!
That's interesting, but beside the point.
The story may sound strange, but it is true.
Your offer is very attractive, but we will have to think about it.
That man is skinny, but his wife is fat.
I will do anything but that.
That baby does nothing but cry.
I may be antisocial, but it doesn't mean I don't talk to people.
I'd be unhappy, but I wouldn't kill myself.
I am a flawed person, but these are flaws that can easily be fixed.
I found a solution, but I found it so fast that it can't be the right solution.
But the possibility seems unlikely.
Life is hard, but I am harder.
Nothing is beautiful but the truth.
I wish I could care more about my grades but it seems that, at a certain point of my life, I decided they wouldn't be so important anymore.
Math is like love - a simple idea, but it can get complicated.
Poor is not the one who has too little, but the one who wants too much.
Hey, I may have no money, but I still have my pride.
We don't see things as they are, but as we are.
The key question is not what can I gain but what do I have to lose.
After that, I left, but then I realized that I forgot my backpack at their house.
But the universe is infinite.

Movie subtitles

But who is it?
But hey!
How, not one but two why would she abandon me!
But how'd he know where I live?
Well, we have to go there and see? but I'll be a good match for a husband.
I'm sorry but can I hold your baby?
You look normal, but how sad.
But I'm not someone that anyone would like at first sight.
We don't have much food, but do you want to eat at my house?
Let's go. I can't give you my heart, but I can give you food.
Hey, but our house is this way.
People live in poverty, But I hope she's living well!
It's just a movie, but my heart's aching!
But why did he look at me that way?
I called you, but I couldn't reach you.
What? You won't answer anyone's questions at all, but you'll ask me questions, huh?
But. There are those who will want it to mean something and will start to analyze it.
But was he really acquitted?
People had finally begun to return, but.
I wanted you to contact Sir Jeremiah, but it seems you probably won't, isn't that right?
Understandable for Elevens, but you're Britannian, aren't you?
But if I stop aiming for something, my father will have died in vain.
But, I'm not backing down!
But. I can't go back. I can't return.
But she ordered us!
But, Nicolaus Copernicus came and said that the Sun stood at the Centre and that we moved around it.
But can't we see or feel that?
It was expected that he would get a big telescope, but for unknown reasons this did not happen.
But look how many there are.
But the hardest thing to get past the screws is peanuts, or anything that contains peanuts, or anything that even MAY contain peanuts.
And, like, you know, when you're sitting around with your friends playing video games and it's fun, but if you munch a nice, big PBJ first, it's even awesomer.
So, here's the thing that makes most kids happy, but the teachers act like the peanut is the devil's bean.
But Santa Claus doesn't charge for his presents.
We tried tunnels, but that didn't work, so we tried unmanned drones.
But. that didn't work either.
It's a risky business, but they get paid a lot of money to take that risk. Keep moving, keep moving.
So, anyway, my cousin's best friend's older brother's girlfriend's sister is gonna be bringing some by this afternoon, and I know it sounds a little stupid, but I'm kind of nervous to pick them up myself.
You know, in case a teacher sees or something. But you got this invisibility ring, right?
It says so right here, but I took some home and set the table with them, and my mom freaked out and sent me to my room, and her boyfriend even kept laughing!
It might take me a while, but I'll get it to you.
But this tampon shit, it's not so fucking funny.
But Frankie, I didn't know it was your money, and I thought I was getting PBJs.

News and current affairs

But if real interest rates rise significantly, as well they might someday, gold prices could plummet.
Yes, gold has had a great run, but so, too, did worldwide housing prices until a couple of years ago.
But if the human capacity for destruction knows few limits, the ability to start over again is just as remarkable.
But, at the same time, a wave of idealism swept across the wreckage, a collective sense of determination to build a more equal, peaceful, and safer world.
But even Charles de Gaulle, a resistance leader of the right, had to accept Communists in his first postwar government, and he agreed to nationalize industries and banks.
But in some ways the 1945 consensus, in the West, was strengthened by Cold War politics.
Communism, still wrapped in the laurel leaf of anti-fascism, had a wide intellectual and emotional appeal, not only in the so-called Third World, but also in Western Europe.
But the 1945 consensus was dealt a much greater blow precisely when we all rejoiced at the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the other great twentieth-century tyranny.
But much else collapsed with the Soviet model.
Neoliberalism filled the vacuum, creating vast wealth for some people, but at the expense of the ideal of equality that had emerged from World War II.
But a new aspiration toward social and economic equality, and international solidarity, is badly needed.
It cannot be the same as the 1945 consensus, but we would do well, on this anniversary, to remember why that consensus was forged in the first place.
Space Adventures was pushing for 2009, but I was pretty busy.
It has entered the history books as the beginning of something new, a new era perhaps, but in any case a time of change.
But gold bugs are right to worry about whether the government will honor its commitments under more extreme circumstances.
But, despite gold's heightened allure in the wake of an extraordinary run-up in its price, it remains a very risky bet for most of us.
By contrast, 2009 is likely to pave the way to a new form of bipolarity, but with China substituting for the Soviet Union.
In better shape, but not alone.
But before this new order appears, the world may be faced with spreading disorder, if not outright chaos.
This dream quickly faded when the Cold War divided the world into two hostile blocs. But in some ways the 1945 consensus, in the West, was strengthened by Cold War politics.