Voices en Español

A frequent error when English speakers write or speak Spanish is not using the Spanish conjunction sino. It’s a small mistake but one that once you realize what the trick is to fixing it, you’ll be fine in no time.

What I’m specifically referring to are the two Spanish conjunctions, sino and pero, which are the equivalent of the English conjunction “but.” (Actually, there happen to be more Spanish words that are the equivalent of “but”. However, for simplicity’s sake, this entry is going to focus only on two of them.)

The tendency for English speakers is to use pero in all situations whenever they want to link divergent ideas, but that isn’t always right.  In Spanish there are times where you also need the word sino to be grammatically correct.

How to know when to use one and not the other? Here’s your cheat sheet:

PERO

Use pero to join two contrasting ideas. This is the same way that “but” is used in English.

For example:
Me gusta este reloj, pero es muy caro. (I like this watch but it is very expensive.)

Estoy de acuerdo contigo pero lo hago a mi manera. (I agree with you but I’m doing it my way.)

SINO

This conjunction also links contrasting ideas. The difference is that sino corrects or negates a piece of information that has come before it. In English, this would be translated as “but, rather” or “rather.” For example:

Roommate 1: Tu jefe te llamó ayer. (Your boss called you yesterday.)

Roommate 2: ¿Estás seguro? Porque lo he visto esta mañana y no me dijo nada. (Are you sure? Because I saw him this morning and he didn’t say anything to me.)

Roommate 1: Ay, perdón. No fue tu jefe actual, sino tu antiguo jefe. (Oh, sorry. It wasn’t your current boss but your old one.)

If followed by a complete sentence, use sino que.

Julia y Leo no llegaron tarde, sino que fueron los primeros en llegar. (Julia and Leo didn’t arrive later, rather they were the first to arrive.)

So, to sum up: Both sino and pero are used as conjunctions to link contrasting ideas. The difference is that sino corrects or negates the information that has come before it, while pero does not. Sino is only used in negative sentences, while pero is in affirmative sentences.

But there are, of course, exceptions with pero. Consider the entire context of a sentence before inserting sino in negative sentences. For example:

Pedro todavía no se ha comprado un coche, pero quiere hacerlo. (Pedro hasn’t bought himself a car but he wants to.)

Pedro no se ha comprado un coche, sino una furgoneta. (Pedro hasn’t bought himself a car, but a van.)

When you’re speaking Spanish,  “sino” may not roll off the tongue because it’s so comfortable just using “pero.” But with a bit of attention and some consistent self-correction, incorporating this conjunction into your speech will eventually become second nature.