Uses of "sino"

[ElCarson]

Hello, I'm a beginning Spanish student and I've been reading around this site for awhile. It's been very helpful, but finally I hit a stumbling block I can't get past...

The word "sino" mean something like "but yet", no? But when and how exactly is it used? Any help understanding the use of this word would be much appreciated.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

You can take a look here: http://forums.tomisimo.org/showthread.php?t=7377.
After reading, you might want to make more sentences of your own or ask specific questions.

[aleCcowaN]

Maybe you have some troubles with "pero" and "sino". We have the same troubles the other way around. Feel free to correct my sentences:

Él fue pero yo no (He went but I didn't)
Yo no fui pero él sí (I didn't go but he did)
Yo no fui sino él (I didn't go <but> he went instead)

We use "sino" when we correct a wrong idea or to drive attention to the right piece of information:

Se comió no tres sino cinco ( He ate not three but five)

We use "sino" to introduce the opposite notion:

No nos ayudó sino todo lo contrario, nos hizo un lío (He didn't help us, quite the opposite, he did a mess)

We use "sino" when "but" means "no other thing"

No hace nada sino criticar a los demás (She does nothing but criticize everybody else)

This is quite incomplete and surely not free from mistakes, but I hope it helps.

[JosephThomas]

Él fue pero yo no (He went but I didn't)
Yo no fui pero él sí (I didn't go but he did)
Yo no fui sino él (I didn't go <but> he went instead)

¡That was incredibly helpful!

ps. ALT + 0161 = ¡

sino = corrects or directs
Pero = but (common)
this was all helpful alecCowaN
¡Muchas Gracias!


God Bless