2023-05-26 15:21:45
Like many students of Italian, I first learned But as ‘but’ – but that ‘but’ doesn’t really do this ubiquitous word justice, as I soon found out.
That’s not to say you can’t use But just the same way you’d say a forceful ‘but’.
I met her on the street, but she pretended not to recognize me.
I saw her in the street, but she pretended not to recognize me.
It’s ugly, but it’s nice.
He’s ugly, but he’s nice.
But while in English we always put ‘but’ at the beginning of a contradicting clause – and the same goes for mathe other common Italian word for ‘but’ – But can go in various positions in your sentence, including at the end. It’s like ‘though’ in that respect.
It is not mica stupid, though!
He’s not the least bit stupid, though!
It’s nice, though.
It’s beautiful, though.
(NB: you’ll hear this phrase used all the time in Italy to excuse just about anything.)
And like ‘though’, But has what linguists call a “concessive value”: you can use it to concede that something is true even if you’ve just said something else that would suggest it isn’t.
In English we might also use phrases like ‘nevertheless’, ‘however’ or ‘yet’ to make the same point.
I’m tired, but not so much that I can’t finish.
I’m tired, yet not so tired as not to be able to finish.
If you don’t want to go, you have to send someone.
If you don’t want to go yourself, you have to send somebody nevertheless.
I recently listened to an elderly (and I assume, hard of hearing) signora sustain a monologue about her summer plans for the duration of a 20-minute bus ride through Tuscany, fuelled largely by trailing “peròooooo…”s that allowed her to keep adding to her point. So do not be afraid to use But liberally.
In spoken Italian you can even reinforce it by preceding it with ma (‘but BUT’!), though the dictionary politely advises you not to do so in ‘proper’ language, for instance when you’re writing a formal letter.
I’ll help you, but you have to do some small effort too.
I’ll help you, but you have to make a bit of an effort too.
The one other use to watch out for is when you hear an Italian speaker exclaim But at the start of their sentence: it’s sometimes used to express surprise, in either a good or a bad way, like ‘well!’ or ‘wow’.
But what courage did you have.
Wow, how brave you’ve been.
But, what rude!
Well! How rude!
And just in case you were wondering how important that little accent on the O really is: very. Without it, but means something quite different – ‘pear tree’.
If you’re struggling to find it on your keyboard, these tips should help.
Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.
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