Sino vs Pero
In Spanish, there are lots of conjunctions like other languages to establish the link between clauses and also to tell the relationship between two objects. Sino and Pero are two words in Spanish language that are used for the same English conjunction ‘but’. When translating English into Spanish, translators face the dilemma of using sino or pero as both words can be used to contrast between sentences, words etc. There are many people who use the conjunctions Sino and Pero interchangeably. However, there are subtle differences between these two conjunctions that need to be kept in mind while substituting ‘but’ in Spanish language.
Pero
When there are two phrases that have to be joined to make a sentence and the second phrase does not negate the idea expressed by the first, Pero is the conjunction used. In fact, you can think of the 2nd phrase adding on to the idea expressed in the 1st phrase when you see Pero being used in a sentence.
Sino
Sino is a conjunction that is used to join two phrases that contradict or negate each other directly. Use Sino when something is negated in the first part of the sentence and the second part of the sentence that comes after this conjunction contradicts this negation.
Sino vs Pero
• Use Sino when the two clauses of a sentence contradict each other.
• Use Pero when the two clauses are in agreement to each other.
• When the first clause is not in negative, use Pero but use Sino if the first clause is in negation.