No. 23 in German
aber
"Aber" means "but" in English.
In a sentence
Ich möchte gerne teilnehmen, aber ich habe keine Zeit.
I would like to participate, but I do not have time.
In this sentence, 'aber' is a conjunction being used to express a contrast between the desire to participate and the lack of time. It functions similarly to 'but' in English.
Das ist aber schön!
That's really nice!
Here, 'aber' is used as an intensifier within an exclamatory sentence, emphasizing the admiration or positive remark about something being nice.
Das Angebot ist gut, aber für uns ungeeignet.
The offer is good, but unsuitable for us.
In this example, 'aber' serves as a conjunction to introduce a restrictive or opposing idea, contrasting the goodness of the offer with its unsuitability for the speaker's context.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “aber” in actual German podcasts.
Find “aber” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays German podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into Deutsch, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
German books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).