No se agrietó, sino que se rompió.

not

Breakdown of No se agrietó, sino que se rompió.

• sino que: but rather
• romperse: to break
• agrietarse: to crack

Questions & Answers about No se agrietó, sino que se rompió.

Why is there se before both verbs?

Here se is part of the verb forms agrietarse and romperse when they are used intransitively to describe what happened to something.

• agrietar = to crack something

• agrietarse = to crack / to become cracked

• romper = to break something
• romperse = to break / to become broken

So No se agrietó, sino que se rompió does not mean that something cracked itself or broke itself in a literal reflexive sense. It means the object became cracked or became broken.

For example:

• El vaso se rompió. = The glass broke.
• La pared se agrietó. = The wall cracked.

What is the difference between agrietarse and romperse?

They are similar, but not identical.

• agrietarse means to crack, to develop cracks
• romperse means to break

So the sentence is making a correction:

• It did not merely crack
• It actually broke

That suggests romperse is stronger or more complete here. A thing can be agrietado and still basically remain in one piece, but if it se rompió, it is broken.

Why does the sentence use no ... sino que ...?