'But' vs 'However' vs 'On the other hand'

Question

Could someone describe all possible differences which distinguish these three conjunctives ('but', 'however', and 'on the other hand')? For example, are there cases when you can use 'However' but you cannot use 'But' or vice verse? Pedantism is welcomed because I need to know even the slightest nuances. I am also curious if there are any changes in meaning, style, fluency etc. depending on whether 'however' or 'on the other hand' is placed right in the beginning of the sentence or after the subject or the predicate. So far I know from academic grammars that 'On the other hand' can be used to express antithesis, replace an item by a more important one, or signal dissimilar or concessive relationship. 'However' is used only to signal concessive relationship and it is more emphatic than 'But'.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Sorry, but it is beyond my ability to describe all possiblities of anything. I'll pass this on to the next advisor.

Anonymous · Answer

Mister Micawber, could you please post a reply or two if any thoughts concerning the topic come to your mind later? I understand that it is rather difficult or maybe even impossible to answer the questions because it seems that sources of reference that describe individual conjunctives extremely thoroughly are very hard to find (do they even exist?), but I was hoping that people who notice this thread could at least speculate on the differences of 'but', 'however', and 'on the other hand' on the basis of their "linguistic intuition" as native speakers of English. These words may seem to be completely equivalent to each other at the first look, but if you look beneath the surface it seems that there are cases when only one of them is suitable.

Anonymous · Answer

The following comments are worthless, I agree, but let me say them: You can start a sentence with "however", and it doesn't sound right with "but". There's a comma after "however", not after "but".

There.

Anonymous · Answer

0Can one stick however in the middle of the sentence or does it always have to start a new sentence?0-

PrTv · Answer

1font01i00You wrote that.02br
02i02font02br
01font01i00Can one stick however in the middle of the sentence or does it always have to start a new sentence?02i02font02br
02br
00Even though my knowledge of english is limited, my grammar book has the information about the use of "however", so I think it's safe to reply to your question according to my book.02br
02br
01i00However02i00 is adverb; it can be used to link the sentences, so you can put it in the middle of two sentences to form a compound sentence (it's a conjunctive adverb).02br
02br
01i00However02i00 can be put in many places in the sentence and here are its position and its needed punctuations (according to my book).02br
02br
001. ID;00 01font00however02font00, ID (He was annoyed; however, he kept quiet.)02br
002. ID.00 01font00However02font00, ID (He was annoyed. However, he kept quiet.)02br
003. ID. ID,00 01font00however02font00.00 (He was annoyed. He kept quiet, however.)02br
004. ID. ID (subject),00 01font00however02font00, v/o/c. (He was annoyed. He, however, kept quiet.)02br
02br
00Hope this helps.02br
02br
00P.s. About your other questions, I guess it's beyond my ability, but the thing that I can tell you is that:02br
00- 01i00But02i00 is co-ordinate conjunction, so its use is almost the same as however but however is mostly used in more formal situation.02br
00- 01i00On the other hand02i00 is mainly use when we want to compare one thing to the other but I 01font00don't02font00 think it functions as a conjunction (compound sentence) or tip-off word (complex sentence). I think that it's just a phrase that we add to help us express our feeling.02br
02br
00I took a look at dictionary and this is the definition of 01i00on the other hand.02br
01del~~00Quote02del~~02br
01font00on the one hand ... on the other hand02br
00used when you are comparing two different facts or two opposite ways of thinking about a situation:02br
00On the one hand I'd like a job which pays more, 01font00but 02font00on the other hand I enjoy the work I'm doing at the moment.02font02br
01del~~00End Quote02del~~02br
02br
02i00You'll see that there is a conjunction (01i00but02i00) between the 2 sentences which means that 01i00on the other hand 02i00alone cannot be used to connect the sentences, so if you want to use it (in compound sentence form), don't forget to put in the conjunction00.02br
02br
00These are just my 2 cents, so please correct me if I'm wrong.01i02br
02br
02i00By the way, if anyone happens to know the answer to my question in the other thread, it'll be appreciated if you help me.02br
0500260hrefhttp://www.EnglishForward.com/English/AgainAnotherQuestionAboutParticiple-PassiveParticiple/dmnjz/Post.htm

Chrismlangan · Answer

When used as a transitional word, ‘however’ has the exact same meaning as ‘but’. But I prefer ‘but’ because it is shorter and a comma does not follow it.

Anonymous · Answer

I like the way you have framed the question.

Infact, I just sent an e-mail with 'but' and 'however' on the same sentence.

eg. we are interested to work on this project but however there are certain concerns.

I guess 'but' is complete contrast and however is not that much.

Mister Micawber · Answer

.

but however there are certain concerns.
I sincerely hope you did not send that to a customer. It is grammatically horrendous.
.

Anonymous · Answer

In my work as a professional editor (Concordia Publishing House), I kept these premises in mind: On the other hand refers to a contrast with only two sides (there are only two hands). But generally reflects a hard exception to a strongly stated case.  However is a less strongly stated contradiction.

Anonymous · Answer

grammatically horrendous??

'But' vs 'However' vs 'On the other hand'

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