pero or sino que

Question

One example drives me crazy (again). When to use pero or sino que.

Example: Luis y yo no hemos terminado, ....... decidimos darnos un tiempo para pensar en lugar de tener que romper.

My answer = pero, because it is correct and I asked as well native speaker and they would use pero.

Strict rules instead of colloquialism @kwiziq?

In 99% of all cases pero is correct but not in Kwiziq.

Would it be possible to rate the answer as correct but add a hint stating that the strict rules would rate differently?

Thanks,

bernd

Silvia Piriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Bernd E.
Thanks for raising this, it’s a very good (and very common) point of confusion.
In your example:

Luis y yo no hemos terminado, ______ decidimos darnos un tiempo…

From a strict grammatical perspective, the expected connector is sino que.
This is because we are correcting or replacing the first idea (no hemos terminado) with a contrasting one. The structure is:

No X, sino que Y(Not X, but rather Y)

That’s the formal rule we follow in the lesson and exercises.
That said, you’re absolutely right that in real-life usage, many native speakers would naturally say pero in conversation. It’s very common and doesn’t sound strange in informal speech.
However, at Kwiziq we prioritise:

Clear structural rules

Standard written Spanish

Exam-oriented accuracy

So in exercises focused specifically on the pero / sino (que) distinction, we apply the strict rule.
Your suggestion about marking it correct with a hint is interesting. We always aim to balance real usage with clear grammar explanations, so feedback like this is helpful.
Thanks again for the thoughtful question!
Saludos
Silvia