but

[[t]bət, STRONG bʌt[/t]]

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buts

1) CONJ-COORD You use but to introduce something which contrasts with what you have just said, or to introduce something which adds to what you have just said.

`You said you'd stay till tomorrow.' - `I know, Bel, but I think I would rather go back.'...

Place the saucepan over moderate heat until the cider is very hot but not boiling...

He not only wants to be taken seriously as a musician, but as a poet too.

2) CONJ-COORD You use but when you are about to add something further in a discussion or to change the subject.

They need to change the image because they need to recruit more people into the prison service. But another point I'd like to make is that a large proportion of the prisons in this country were built in the nineteenth century.

3) CONJ-COORD You use but after you have made an excuse or apologized for what you are just about to say.

Please excuse me, but there is something I must say...

I'm sorry, but it's nothing to do with you...

Forgive my asking, but you're not very happy, are you?

4) CONJ-COORD (feelings) You use but to introduce a reply to someone when you want to indicate surprise, disbelief, refusal, or protest.

`I don't think I should stay in this house.' - `But why?'...

`Somebody wants you on the telephone' - `But no one knows I'm here!'

5) PREP: n PREP n But is used to mean `except'.

Europe will be represented in all but two of the seven races...

He didn't speak anything but Greek...

The crew of the ship gave them nothing but bread to eat.

6) ADV: ADV n, ADV num But is used to mean `only'. [FORMAL]

This is but one of the methods used to try and get through to the patients that alcohol, as far as they are concerned, should be a thing of the past.

...Napoleon and Marie Antoinette, to name but two who had stayed in the great state rooms.

7) N-PLURAL You use buts in expressions like `no buts' and `ifs and buts' to refer to reasons someone gives for not doing something, especially when you do not think that they are good reasons.

`B-b-b-b-but' I stuttered. - `Never mind the buts,' she ranted...

He committed a crime, no ifs or buts about it.

8) PHRASE: PHR inf (emphasis) You use cannot but, could not but, and cannot help but when you want to emphasize that you believe something must be true and that there is no possibility of anything else being the case. [FORMAL]

The pistol, no larger than the palm of my hand, was positioned where I couldn't help but see it...

She could not but congratulate him.

9) PHRASE: PHR n/-ing You use but for to introduce the only factor that causes a particular thing not to happen or not to be completely true.

...the small square below, empty but for a delivery van and a clump of palm trees...

But for you, they might have given us the slip.

Syn:

except for

10) PHRASE: PHR cl You use but then or but then again before a remark which slightly contradicts what you have just said.

The house is probably unsaleable because the bathroom extension has been built to contravene building regulations. But then again the estate agent thinks that the surveyor is wrong.

11) PHRASE: PHR cl You use but then before a remark which suggests that what you have just said should not be regarded as surprising.

He was a fine young man, but then so had his father been...

Sonia might not speak the English language well, but then who did?

12) all but → see all

anything but → see anything