Oppositional Coordinating Conjunctions

Moving forward with our overview on Italian conjunctions, this week, we will go over a selection of oppositional coordinating conjunctions. Their function is to present a sort of contrast, contradiction, or counterargument to an idea/statement mentioned previously. They have the power to link either two words or two entire clauses together.

The conjunctions on which we will focus in this lesson are:

ma = but
però = but, yet; however, though
tuttavia = however, nevertheless, still
nondimeno = however, nevertheless, regardless, yet
eppure = and still, and yet
anzi = actually, in fact, on the contrary; rather, or better still
comunque = however, no matter how; nevertheless

Ma

Ma is the Italian equivalent of the English but, and has two slightly different meanings. First, we have the regular oppositional ma, which establishes a sort of contrast between two elements in a sentence: