The word “but” most commonly functions as a conjunction meaning “except,” “yet,” or “however.” It can also serve as a preposition or adverb depending on context. Writers use it to introduce contrasts, exceptions, or qualifications. The examples below are drawn from authentic works to show how “but” appears in real writing.
Real Sentences for But
They were in part peculiar indeed, but I have followed them to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
21 words, 108 characters
I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the tall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
24 words, 126 characters
Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
25 words, 130 characters
She would impose her will, but her will would be only that a person or two shouldn’t lose a benefit by not submitting if they could be made to submit.
Source: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
30 words, 150 characters
For some reason this news did not surprise me, but I hurried out to his place as quickly as possible, so that I could take charge of the body and of his affairs.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
33 words, 161 characters
I have often heard my father caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only laugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back of a horse yet unfoaled.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
35 words, 184 characters
I am not given to needless worrying, but the more I tried to convince myself that all was well with Powell, and that the dots I had seen on his trail were antelope or wild horses, the less I was able to assure myself.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
44 words, 217 characters
Captain Carter had a small but beautiful cottage, situated on a bluff overlooking the river, and during one of my last visits, in the winter of 1885, I observed he was much occupied in writing, I presume now, upon this manuscript.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
41 words, 230 characters
Powell, I knew, was well armed and, further, an experienced Indian fighter; but I too had lived and fought for years among the Sioux in the North, and I knew that his chances were small against a party of cunning trailing Apaches.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
42 words, 230 characters
Possibly the suggestions which I gained upon Mars, and the knowledge which I can set down in this chronicle, will aid in an earlier understanding of the mysteries of our sister planet; mysteries to you, but no longer mysteries to me.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
41 words, 233 characters
I do not know why I should fear death, I who have died twice and am still alive; but yet I have the same horror of it as you who have never died, and it is because of this terror of death, I believe, that I am so convinced of my mortality.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
52 words, 239 characters
I know that the average human mind will not believe what it cannot grasp, and so I do not purpose being pilloried by the public, the pulpit, and the press, and held up as a colossal liar when I am but telling the simple truths which some day science will substantiate.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
51 words, 268 characters
The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.
Source: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
62 words, 338 characters
More examples coming soon.
