Learn how to say 'but', joining and contrasting sentences

Yeah, But...

In this Topic, we're going to learn two ways to say 'but' by using the conjunctive particles けど and が. With these words, we will be able to expand our range of expression and make more nuanced statements.

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  • けど・だけど

    But, However

    • けど is one of the common conjunction particles in Japanese. These are particles that function by connecting the (A) and (B) parts of a sentence. けど works very similarly to が, in that it highlights 'while thinking about (A), (B)'. This means that けど will often come across as 'but' in English.

    As can be seen from these examples, just like many other grammatical constructions, だ will be required when using けど after a な-Adjective, or a noun.

    けど is just a modern (casual) version of けれども. Please see below for a list of the most casual, to the most formal variations.

    Casual - けど - けども - けれど - けれども - が - Formal.

    Caution

    The phrase after けど will often be omitted if it is obvious, or the speaker does not want to say it.

    N5 文法

  • が

    But, However

    • As a particle, が has several different uses in Japanese. However, each of these different uses share a common theme. That theme expresses 'highlighting (A) as important, (B)'. In this use, が comes across as 'but', or 'however' in English.

    This nuance of が is used directly after any form of verb or い-Adjective, but requires one of the conjugations of だ or です before it when used with a noun or な-Adjective.

    From these examples, we can see that が is simply highlighting that 'while (A) is important, there is extra information'. が with the meaning of 'but' is considered to be very formal, this is due to it sounding quite direct in asserting that there is extra information.

    Caution

    Sometimes a statement will end with が. In these cases it just means that more information exists, but it is obvious, so it does not need to be said.

    N5 文法

詳細

The difference between けど and が can appear small when looking at them in translation, however they are generally used in quite different situations. Let's take a closer look at some examples.

Did That Register With You

How people speak in Japanese (and any language) can change quite a lot depending on the context. We can call the specific way someone is speaking a 'speech register'.

To help understand this idea, we need to separate out the idea of 'polite speech' from 'formal speech'. Japanese marks politeness grammatically, using です and ます. Formality, on the other hand, is not marked grammatically. It is about word choice which sounds more lofty and is used in rigid situations (such as news, interviews, academic papers, and so on).

As such, Japanese can be a combination of polite or not polite (standard), and formal or informal (can sometimes be considered 'casual' or 'conversational'). Of course, there are gray areas and levels of nuance beyond this. However, this holds true on the whole.

けど tends to be used in less formal language, while が tends to be used in more formal language.

The 'standard and formal' combination is most often seen in written language, and tends to use advanced vocabulary and grammar, so we won't see much of it until we're at higher levels. However, the other three combinations make up the majority of spoken language.

The Quiet Life

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