How many ways to say "but" are there in Japanese?


So far, I remember 4 ways to say "but" in Japanese, but I bet there are more,
aren't there?

  * kedo
  * demo
  * daga
  * shikashi

Are there other ways to say "but" in Japanese? What about their difference in
usage?




I feel the given answers and comments can be improved. Also nobody really
talked about the difference in usage of the various forms you introduced.

First of all, what do you really want to know? From the way you ask your
question it seems to me that you are mostly interested in "but" as a
conjunction used in sentences such as "I should be working but instead I'm
posting an answer on stack exchange".

If this is correct, you can forget about more than half of the examples coming
up in the referenced dictionary. If you are instead interested in "but" in a
broader sense (including adverbs such as "however" etc) well, post a comment.

To get back to your answer (focusing on conjunctions) the most common ways to
say but are:

  1. けど - けれど - けれども: These all mean the same thing, and the main difference is purely in formality (going from the most casual (けど) to the most formal (けれども).
  2. でも: This as well is a very typical way to say "but". The difference with the above is that けど etc connect a second clause while でも is more like a "standalone". See this [related question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2738/%E3%81%A7%E3%82%82-demo-versus-%E3%81%91%E3%81%A9-kedo-to-mean-but) for example.

  * 2.1. だが： This as well means "but" and could be quite interchangeable with でも in usage, the difference being that だが is much more formal and probably you'll find it mostly in written documents.. or in something like:

> [...] 海は枯れ、地は裂け、全ての生物が死滅したかのように見えた。 **だが** 、人類は死滅していなかった。

... And if you don't upvote after this you're a post-apocalyptic punk who
deserves a 北斗百裂拳. :D

  3. しかし: It's a bit like でも but more formal and probably again you would find it in written documents etc. I usually think of this more as "however" rather than "but" (although well yeah, the meaning is quite the same).

  4. が : This does not always necessarily mean "but" but there are cases it can, for example when it connects two clauses opposite to each other. For example : 老人だが、彼はまだたいそう元気だ。

  5. **BONUS** 。。 のに: This might sound strange at first but I put it here as a sort of way to say (joking) that questions like yours are very hard to answer (that's why above I stressed "what do you want to know"). In fact, you could see even のに as but. Think about this: こんなに頑張ったのに、私の答えはほとんど無視された. Which of course you would probably translate as "Even though I put a lot of effort (on it), my answer has been basically ignored".. but isn't this the same as "I put a lot on effort on it **but** my answer has been basically ignored"?

So as you can see there are really a lot of ways to say "but". I think I
listed the most common and tried to give you an idea of the main differences.
Of course if I had to list all the synonyms (ただし etc) or less common forms
such as しかるに etc.. this post would be endless. I hope what I said so far gives
you a good general idea.

[This](https://hanpamono.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/no-ifs-or-buts-they-say-but-
but-but/) is another reference that seems to me gives some nice explanations
of different ways to say "but".




I feel the given answers and comments can be improved. Also nobody really
talked about the difference in usage of the various forms you introduced.

First of all, what do you really want to know? From the way you ask your
question it seems to me that you are mostly interested in "but" as a
conjunction used in sentences such as "I should be working but instead I'm
posting an answer on stack exchange".

If this is correct, you can forget about more than half of the examples coming
up in the referenced dictionary. If you are instead interested in "but" in a
broader sense (including adverbs such as "however" etc) well, post a comment.

To get back to your answer (focusing on conjunctions) the most common ways to
say but are:

  1. けど - けれど - けれども: These all mean the same thing, and the main difference is purely in formality (going from the most casual (けど) to the most formal (けれども).
  2. でも: This as well is a very typical way to say "but". The difference with the above is that けど etc connect a second clause while でも is more like a "standalone". See this [related question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2738/%E3%81%A7%E3%82%82-demo-versus-%E3%81%91%E3%81%A9-kedo-to-mean-but) for example.

  * 2.1. だが： This as well means "but" and could be quite interchangeable with でも in usage, the difference being that だが is much more formal and probably you'll find it mostly in written documents.. or in something like:

> [...] 海は枯れ、地は裂け、全ての生物が死滅したかのように見えた。 **だが** 、人類は死滅していなかった。

... And if you don't upvote after this you're a post-apocalyptic punk who
deserves a 北斗百裂拳. :D

  3. しかし: It's a bit like でも but more formal and probably again you would find it in written documents etc. I usually think of this more as "however" rather than "but" (although well yeah, the meaning is quite the same).

  4. が : This does not always necessarily mean "but" but there are cases it can, for example when it connects two clauses opposite to each other. For example : 老人だが、彼はまだたいそう元気だ。

  5. **BONUS** 。。 のに: This might sound strange at first but I put it here as a sort of way to say (joking) that questions like yours are very hard to answer (that's why above I stressed "what do you want to know"). In fact, you could see even のに as but. Think about this: こんなに頑張ったのに、私の答えはほとんど無視された. Which of course you would probably translate as "Even though I put a lot of effort (on it), my answer has been basically ignored".. but isn't this the same as "I put a lot on effort on it **but** my answer has been basically ignored"?

So as you can see there are really a lot of ways to say "but". I think I
listed the most common and tried to give you an idea of the main differences.
Of course if I had to list all the synonyms (ただし etc) or less common forms
such as しかるに etc.. this post would be endless. I hope what I said so far gives
you a good general idea.

[This](https://hanpamono.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/no-ifs-or-buts-they-say-but-
but-but/) is another reference that seems to me gives some nice explanations
of different ways to say "but".

