Consolidated and separate spelling “on the other hand” always raises questions both among people studying Russian and its native speakers. There is absolutely nothing shameful in this, because cases of continuous and separate writing vary from context to context, and each case is considered individually, and therefore it will never be called simple by anyone. Nevertheless, for anyone who wants to competently write in Russian, it will be very important to understand, write "but" together or separately.
Why is the spelling of the word "but" difficult?
The main reason is the fact that there are a couple of homonyms that sound like “but”, but are different parts of speech, and they should be written in different ways. As an example, consider the following suggestions.
| Sentence | In the evening it snowed; in the morning, gloomy, sleepy adults had to dig their cars out from under the white covers, but the children were happy and having fun from the heart. | She always hated me for being persistent and, as she sometimes thought, even rude. |
| Spelling "but" | Together: but. | Separately: for that. |
| Part of speech | Composing Union. | The preposition "for" and the indicative pronoun "that". |
The fact that it is impossible to say exactly how the word "behaves" in one case or another is a huge problem for everyone who wants to write correctly in Russian.
When should I write "but" together?
As already noted earlier, together or separately "on the other hand" is written depending on which part of the speech is. However, in practice, determining part of speech can be difficult. However, do not get upset prematurely: there is a proven way to identify cases where "on the other hand" is a union and is written together. To do this, it is enough to replace it with a synonymous opposing union "a" or "but." For instance:
| It is written | Can be replaced by |
| Rain washed away the roads, but mushrooms appeared in the forest. | Rain washed out the roads, but mushrooms appeared in the forest. |
| This year, everyone successfully passed the exam, but the next year they promised to complicate it several times. | This year, everyone successfully passed the exam, and the next year they promised to complicate it several times. |
If doubts remain after that, you can try to split one complex sentence into two simple ones and replace “on the other hand” with “nonetheless”. It looks like this:
| The bus was late, but the passengers managed to get to know each other while standing at the bus stop. | The bus was late. Nevertheless, the passengers managed to get to know each other while standing at the bus stop. |
After this, the fusion spelling "on the other hand" should become obvious.
When should I write "for that" separately?
In this case, everything is much simpler. Just ask the question "For what?". If it organically fits into the sentence, separate writing should not cause any doubt. For instance:
- He hid (for what?) Behind that dry tree.
- Guests thank the hostess (for what?) For preparing a delicious dinner.
- The grammar of the Russian language should be loved already (for what?) Because the word "for that" has just been written separately, but now it should be written together.
That's all! Having learned these simple rules and algorithms, one can easily distinguish a union from a preposition and a demonstrative pronoun. Having practiced a little and having studied the examples suggested in the article, anyone will be able to write the word "but" together or separately, avoiding mistakes even in the most difficult cases.