English Help Online's Blog

Today I’d like to write about some words that mean the same thing: “but”, “though” and “although”. The difference between them is not the meaning but the grammar. So this is how we use them:

I ate dinner an hour ago, but I’m still hungry.

I ate dinner an hour ago. I’m still hungry though.

Although I ate dinner an hour ago, I’m still hungry.

My friend has studied Spanish for two years, but he can’t speak very well.

My friend has studied Spanish for two years. He can’t speak very well though.

Although my friend has studied Spanish for two years, he can’t speak very well.

So as you can see from these examples, we use “but” in the middle of the sentence. We use “though” at the end of a second sentence, and we use “although” at the beginning of the sentence and put a comma in the middle. There’s no difference in the meaning, but the word “although” is the most formal, the word “but” is the most casual, and the word “though” is in the middle.