그러나 · 하지만 · 그렇지만: But / However

Korean has three everyday conjunctions that all translate as "but" or "however": 그러나, 하지만, and 그렇지만. They do the same grammatical thing — open a new sentence that reverses the expectation set up by the previous one — so a learner who only cares about meaning will treat them as interchangeable. That is a mistake, because the entire point of having three is register. English "but," "however," and "though" carry no built-in formality; Korean bakes formality straight into the choice. Pick the wrong one and you sound like you're reading a lecture at your friends, or chatting casually in a research paper.

The register split in one glance

That table is really the whole lesson. Everything below fills it in.

하지만: the everyday "but"

하지만 is your default. It is register-neutral — equally natural in a chat with a friend, an email, or a magazine article — and it means a plain "but": what follows contradicts or qualifies what came before.

If you're unsure which of the three to use, 하지만 is almost never wrong. It's the safe center of the register scale.

그러나: the written "however"

그러나 is the formal, written cousin. You'll meet it constantly in newspapers, essays, academic writing, and formal speeches — anywhere the tone is elevated. In casual conversation it sounds stiff and lecture-like, so speakers avoid it there.

Both of those are in the plain written 한다체 (남아 있다, 심각하다), which is exactly where 그러나 lives. It signals a considered, impersonal turn in an argument — the "however" of a thesis, not the "but" of a coffee-shop complaint.

그렇지만: "but even so"

그렇지만 sits closest to 하지만 in meaning but adds a faint concessive shading — "but even so, still." It's a spoken form, a little softer and more yielding than a flat 하지만, as if you're granting the previous point a moment before pushing back.

Note the spelling trap: 그렇지만 is pronounced [그러치만] — the ㅎ of 그렇 fuses with the following ㅈ into an aspirated ㅊ. But you write 그렇지만, keeping the ㅎ. Do not spell it the way it sounds.

Where they come from: two of them are 그렇다-forms

Here's the tidy piece of etymology that makes all three click into place. Two of the three are transparently built from 그렇다 ("to be so, to be that way") plus a contrastive verb ending:

• 그러나 = 그렇다 + -(으)나 (the formal "but" ending). 그렇다 is ㅎ-irregular, so 그렇- + -으나 loses the ㅎ and the 으, giving 그러나.
• 그렇지만 = 그렇다 + -지만 (the everyday "but" ending). Here -지만 attaches straight to the stem, so the ㅎ stays in the spelling: 그렇지만.

In other words, these two conjunctions are just the sentence-level version of the clause-connecting endings -지만 and -(으)나 with 그렇다 out front, meaning "it is so, but…". That's why 그렇지만 (from the neutral/spoken -지만) is spoken, and 그러나 (from the formal -(으)나) is formal — each inherits the register of its ending.

하지만 is the exception. It looks like it should be a 그렇다-form, but it isn't. It comes from 하다 ("to do/say") + -지만, historically 하지마는 — literally "(one) says, but…". That's why it opens with 하 rather than 그: it's built on 하다, not 그렇다. Despite the different ancestry, it behaves exactly like the other two.

Reversal, not topic-shift

All three of these are pure adversatives: the second clause genuinely opposes the first. This matters because Korean has another "but"-word, 그런데 (spoken 근데), that often does not reverse anything — it shifts topics ("by the way…"). Do not reach for 그러나 or 하지만 to make a friendly topic change; that's 그런데's job, covered on the 그런데 · 근데 page. If your "but" is really "anyway, moving on," none of the three conjunctions here is the right tool.

Common Mistakes

1. Using 그러나 in casual conversation. It's the written "however"; among friends it sounds stiff and formal. Use 하지만 (or spoken 근데).

2. Opening every contrastive sentence with 하지만 when -지만 would fuse it. Two clauses about one thing usually flow better joined by the ending than split by a full-stop plus 하지만.

3. Spelling 그렇지만 the way it sounds. It's pronounced [그러치만], but the standard spelling keeps the ㅎ of 그렇.

4. Using 그러나/하지만 for a topic shift. When your "but" means "by the way," these pure reversers don't fit — you want 그런데.

Key Takeaways

• All three reverse the previous sentence's expectation; the difference is register.
• 하지만 = neutral, the safe everyday "but," spoken and written.
• 그러나 = formal/written "however" — essays, news, speeches; stiff in casual talk.
• 그렇지만 = spoken, softer "but even so," with a light concessive shade; written 그렇지만, said [그러치만].
• 그러나 and 그렇지만 are 그렇다-forms (with -(으)나 and -지만); 하지만 is the odd one out, from 하다 + -지만.
• Prefer fusing with the ending -지만 (예쁘지만 비싸요) over splitting every contrast into two sentences.
• For "but" that shifts topics rather than reverses, use 그런데 · 근데.