English hands you one phrase — on the other hand — and lets context sort out what you meant by it. Hebrew makes you choose, because the three obvious candidates assert three different things about the relation between your two clauses. Pick the wrong one and the sentence stays grammatical while quietly claiming something you did not mean.
The markers, and the relation each asserts
| Marker | Reading | The relation it asserts | What it needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| לעומת זאת | le'umát zot | comparison — two things measured against each other | a comparable first term |
| מצד שני | mitsád shení | weighing — a second consideration on the scales | its partner מצד אחד |
| יחד עם זאת / עם זאת | yákhad im zot / im zot | concession — the previous point stands, and here is its limit | a point you have just granted |
| ובכל זאת | uvekhól zot | stronger concession — and even so | an expectation to defeat |
| אף על פי כן | af al pi ken | the same, in written register | the same |
Everyday אבל sits under all five and asserts nothing beyond "something is coming that cuts against that". It is not a rung below these markers; it is a different tool, and אבל and אלא is where it is worked out.
לעומת זאת compares
The most useful thing to know about לעומת זאת is that it is not a conjunction at all. לעומת is a preposition meaning as against, compared with, and it takes an ordinary noun phrase. The marker is that same preposition with זאת standing in for the whole preceding clause: literally as against that. Milog lists it as לְעוּמַּת זֹאת and glosses it בניגוד למה שנאמר — in contrast to what has been said.
Once you see the preposition inside the marker, the constraint falls out for free: לעומת זאת needs something genuinely comparable on each side. Two entities, two periods, two conditions.
לעומת השנה שעברה, המחירים כאן ירדו קצת.
le'umát hashaná she'avrá, hamekhirím kan yardú ktsat
Compared with last year, prices here have come down a bit. (the bare preposition, plus a noun)
בתל אביב קשה למצוא חנייה. בחיפה, לעומת זאת, אין בעיה.
betél avív kashé limtsó khanayá. bekhéifa, le'umát zot, ein be'ayá
In Tel Aviv parking is hard to find. In Haifa, by contrast, there's no problem. (two cities, one property, measured against each other)
אחותי הגדולה למדה משפטים. אני, לעומת זאת, לא החזקתי מעמד סמסטר.
akhotí hagdolá lamdá mishpatím. aní, le'umát zot, lo hekhzákti ma'amád seméster
My big sister read law. I, on the other hand, didn't last a semester.
מצד אחד … מצד שני is a template, not a word
מצד שני does not compare two things; it weighs one thing from two sides. Milog's gloss is מנקודת מבט אחרת, מאידך — from another point of view. The tell is grammatical: מצד means from [the] side of, so the marker literally opens a second vantage point, and a second vantage point implies a first.
That is why this one comes as a pair. Hebrew speakers hear מצד אחד as a promise, and the promise is that מצד שני is coming. Open with the first half and the listener waits for the second; produce the second half alone and it sounds like an answer to a question nobody asked. The correlative pairs generally are on correlative conjunctions.
מצד אחד הדירה ענקית, מצד שני היא בקומה שלישית בלי מעלית.
mitsád ekhád hadirá anakít, mitsád shení hi bekomá shlishít bli ma'alít
On the one hand the flat is huge; on the other, it's on the third floor with no lift.
מצד אחד אני מת לנסוע, מצד שני מי ישמור על הכלב?
mitsád ekhád aní met linsóa, mitsád shení mi yishmór al hakélev?
On the one hand I'm dying to go; on the other, who's going to look after the dog? (m. speaker)
יחד עם זאת concedes — and one dictionary gets this wrong
יחד עם זאת is where learners and dictionaries both go astray. Milog gives it the gloss בְּנוֹסָף עַל כַּךְ, מֵעֵבֶר לזה, בְּנוֹסָף — in addition to that, beyond that, additionally — and hands יתר על כן the same gloss one prefix letter apart, נוֹסָף עַל כַּךְ, מֵעֵבֶר לזה, בְּנוֹסָף. That is right for יתר על כן and wrong for יחד עם זאת, which is not additive at all.
Do not take that on this page's word; read the construction. זאת is the point just made, יחד עם means together with, so the phrase says: holding on to all of that, here is what sits beside it. What comes next does not extend the previous point, it limits it. An additive marker would let the two clauses point the same way; this one requires them to pull apart.
The test is a swap. Put יתר על כן where יחד עם זאת stands and the paragraph stops arguing and starts piling up — and if the second clause happens to be a criticism, the sentence becomes incoherent.
הדוח מקיף ומדויק. יחד עם זאת, הוא לא אומר מילה על העלות.
hadóakh makíf umeduyák. yákhad im zot, hu lo omér milá al ha'alút
The report is thorough and accurate. That said, it doesn't say a word about the cost.
ההצעה מפתה. עם זאת, כדאי לקרוא את האותיות הקטנות.
hahatsa'á mefatá. im zot, kedái likró et ha'otiyót haktanót
The offer is tempting. That said, it's worth reading the small print. (עם זאת is the short form, and the commoner one in writing)
And even so: ובכל זאת, אף על פי כן
These two are stronger. They do not merely limit the previous point — they say that the expected consequence failed to arrive. ובכל זאת belongs to speech and writing alike; אף על פי כן is written, and Milog glosses it plainly as למרות זאת.
אמרתי לו שזה לא רעיון טוב, ובכל זאת הוא נסע.
amárti lo shezé lo ra'yón tov, uvekhól zot hu nasá
I told him it was a bad idea, and he went anyway.
הניסוי נכשל שלוש פעמים. אף על פי כן, המשיכו לממן אותו.
hanisúy nikhshál shalósh pe'amím. af al pi ken, himshíkhu lemamén otó
The experiment failed three times. Even so, they carried on funding it. (formal)
Full concessive clauses — although, even though, despite the fact that — are a different construction and live on concessive conjunctions.
The same decision, two shapes
The same speaker, the same job offer, argued twice. The first sentence weighs; the second compares. Notice that the weighing version cannot be reordered without breaking, while the comparison version could put either city first.
מצד אחד מציעים לי משכורת כפולה, מצד שני זה אומר לעבור עיר ולהתחיל הכול מאפס.
mitsád ekhád matsi'ím li maskóret kfulá, mitsád shení ze omér la'avór ir ulehatkhíl hakól me'éfes
On the one hand they're offering me double the salary; on the other, it means moving city and starting everything from scratch.
בירושלים אני מכיר כל פינה. בבאר שבע, לעומת זאת, לא יהיה לי אף חבר.
birushaláyim aní makír kol piná. biv'ér shéva, le'umát zot, lo yihyé li af khavér
In Jerusalem I know every corner. In Beersheba, by contrast, I won't have a single friend. (m. speaker)
Common Mistakes
1. Using אבל for every contrast. אבל is never wrong, and that is exactly the problem: a paragraph built entirely out of אבל tells the reader that clauses conflict but never which kind of conflict. Both of the following are good Hebrew; only the second makes a claim about the relation.
✅ הקורס מעניין אבל הוא יקר מדי בשבילי.
hakúrs me'anyén avál hu yakár midái bishvilí
The course is interesting but it's too expensive for me.
✅ הקורס מעניין. יחד עם זאת, הוא יקר מדי בשבילי.
hakúrs me'anyén. yákhad im zot, hu yakár midái bishvilí
The course is interesting. That said, it's too expensive for me. (the same facts, now with the concession made explicit)
2. Inheriting Milog's gloss for יחד עם זאת. If you look the phrase up and get בנוסף על כך, you will write it where English would write moreover, and the result argues against itself. The additive job belongs to יתר על כן, זאת ועוד and בנוסף לכך, which are on written argument connectors.
3. Producing מצד שני with no מצד אחד anywhere. English speakers do this constantly, because on the other hand has floated free of on the one hand. In Hebrew the pair is still felt, and a lone מצד שני reads as though the first half of your sentence went missing.
4. Writing מצד השני. See the tip above: the fixed form is bare, by a factor of about 140 in written Hebrew, and the article pulls the phrase toward its literal spatial sense.
5. Reaching for לעומת זאת when nothing is being compared. If your second clause qualifies the first rather than standing beside it as a rival, לעומת זאת is the wrong instrument — it announces a comparison and then fails to supply one. That sentence wants יחד עם זאת.
Key Takeaways
- לעומת זאת is the preposition לעומת plus a pro-form. It compares two comparable things, and the bare preposition takes a noun: לעומת השנה שעברה.
- מצד שני weighs, and it comes as a template with מצד אחד. Milog glosses it מנקודת מבט אחרת.
- Write it without the article: מצד שני outnumbers מצד השני by roughly 140 to 1 in Hebrew Wikipedia.
- יחד עם זאת and עם זאת concede. Milog's בנוסף על כך gloss is wrong for them, and the construction shows why — יחד עם זאת holds the previous point and sets a limit beside it.
- ובכל זאת and אף על פי כן are stronger: the expected consequence did not follow.
- אבל underlies all of them and asserts nothing about the relation. Use it freely in speech, and reach for a marker when the logic is the point.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- אבל and אלא: Two Kinds of 'But'A2 — English has one but and Hebrew has two, and the split is not a matter of style: אבל adds a contrasting clause, אלא swaps a correct item in for one you have just rejected. English speakers do not notice the second slot exists, which is why the calque with אבל is the most reliable tell there is.
- למרות ש־, אף על פי ש־, אם כיB2 — אף על פי and על אף look like variants of each other and are two unrelated words: one אף means also, the other is the noun anger. That history is what produces the blend על אף ש־ that editors correct, and it explains why the noun-takers — על אף, חרף, למרות — behave as they do. Also: what the Academy's dictionary actually says about למרות, and why אם כי is glossed two different ways.
- Connectors for Written Argument: לפיכך, עם זאת, אשר על כןC1 — The connectors that build an argument, grouped by the move they make rather than by their history, each group paired with the spoken words that do the same job. Includes the result family sorted by what it actually claims — inference, causation or consequence — and the measured rarity of אשר על כן: 83 to 84 Hebrew Wikipedia articles against 7,700 for לפיכך.
- Giving an OpinionB1 — לדעתי, בעיניי and מבחינתי are not three ways of saying 'in my opinion' — one frames a reasoned position, one an impression, and one what you will accept. Plus the strength ladder from נראה לי to אני משוכנע, the ש that English drops and Hebrew never does, and the one place where adding ש breaks the sentence.
- אגב and דרך אגב: By the WayB2 — Opening a digression is easy; the part learners never get taught is closing it. אגב is Aramaic — Wiktionary derives it from אַ־גַּב, 'on the back of something else' — and דרך אגב is a partial calque of אגב אורחא. Also here: the letter-based derivation Wiktionary itself labels folk etymology, and אגב כך, which no dictionary carries and which appears in 198 Hebrew Wikipedia articles.