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En la semifinal no buscan al inventor, sino al campeón.

En la semifinal no buscan al inventor, sino al campeón.
In the semifinal, they are not looking for the inventor, but rather the champion.
From Lesson 400:Corrective contrast (no... sino / no... más que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about En la semifinal no buscan al inventor, sino al campeón.

Why do we use sino here instead of pero?
In this sentence, sino is used for corrective contrast. Since the first part of the sentence is negative (no buscan), we use sino to mean but rather or but instead to offer the correct alternative. If you just wanted to add contrasting information without correcting the first part, you would use pero.
Could I use sino que in this sentence?
No. You only use sino que when the correction introduces a new conjugated verb. Since the correction here is just a noun phrase (al campeón), you use sino. If you wanted to repeat the verb, you would have to say sino que buscan al campeón.
Why is there an al before inventor and campeón?
The verb buscar requires the personal a when its direct object is a person. Since both el inventor and el campeón refer to people, you must use the preposition a. This immediately combines with the masculine article el to form the mandatory contraction al.
Who is the subject of buscan?
The verb buscan is in the third-person plural form, which is frequently used in Spanish to express an impersonal action. Similar to how we use they or people in English, it refers generally to the judges or organizers without needing to name a specific subject.

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