# But vs however: how it is scored and how to change it > "But" and "however" do the same job, marking a contrast, in different registers: "but" is short and conversational, "however" more formal. Canonical: https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/but-however-yet # But vs however *By Jack Stovell ยท published 2026-09-24* "But" and "however" do the same job, marking a contrast, in different registers: "but" is short and conversational, "however" more formal. ScriptGrain records which contrast word you default to (but, however, yet or mixed) as but_however_yet_preference, a label the extraction model judges from your samples. It never moves the voice match score. ## Analyse your but, however, yet free Your free voice profile measures but, however, yet among all 45 attributes, from a sample of your own writing. No card needed. [Try the six-signal check first](https://scriptgrain.com/#sg-measure) ## At a glance - API field: **but_however_yet_preference** - How it is measured: **Judged by an AI model** - Group: **Function words** (ScriptGrain voice profile, 45 attributes in 8 groups) - Scale: **but, however, yet or mixed** (ScriptGrain attribute definitions) - Voice match: **Not scored** (ScriptGrain voice-match engine (published method)) ## What contrast words (but, however, yet) measures This attribute records which contrast word shows up as your default: but, however, yet, or a mixed habit that doesn't settle on one. It sits in the [Function words group](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/function-words) alongside four siblings, including [pronoun distribution](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/pronoun-distribution) and [discourse markers](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/discourse-markers), the small connective words that carry more of your voice than people expect. The app's own definition is blunt: "The preferred contrast word: but, however, or yet." Nothing fancier than that. "But" and "however" do the same logical job. They both flag a contradiction or a pivot. But they carry completely different registers. "But" is short, blunt, conversational. "However" is longer, more formal, more suited to a report than a chat. "Yet" sits somewhere else again: it often implies unresolved tension rather than flat contradiction ("she's tired, yet she keeps going"). Your natural pick among these three tells a reader (or a model reading you) a lot about how formal you sound by default. The extraction model behind ScriptGrain (Claude Sonnet 5) reads your writing samples in two passes: pass one goes sample by sample, pass two synthesises everything into one profile. This attribute is judged, not counted. No piece of code tallies up how many times you wrote "but" versus "however"; the model forms an impression and reports it as a label: `"but"`, `"however"`, `"yet"`, or `"mixed"`. That sets it apart from the 14 attributes code counts when a draft is scored or a free tool runs. ## How contrast words (but, however, yet) is scored Short answer: it doesn't move your voice match score at all. The engine behind the [voice match](https://scriptgrain.com/glossary/voice-match) score has no comparator built for this attribute, so however you write your contrasts, it has zero effect on the number you get back. Polish tools can't target it either, because there's nothing there to target. That puts `but_however_yet_preference` in the minority. Of the 45 attributes in a profile, 28 can move a voice match score; this one can't (the writing voice attributes reference covers all 45). So why keep it? Because voice isn't only what gets scored. It's read, reported, and used to generate text in your style, even when it plays no part in judging how close a piece of writing sits to that style. The full scoring method (code counts sentence and punctuation features, Claude Haiku judges formality and rhythm, and a fixed calibration turns the result into a 0 to 1 score) is on the [voice measurement framework](https://scriptgrain.com/reference/voice-measurement-framework) page. ## How to analyse contrast words (but, however, yet) in your own writing You don't need software to spot this pattern; you need a highlighter and twenty minutes. 1. Pull five pieces of your own writing, ideally 500+ words each. 2. Search or scan for "but", "however", and "yet" used as contrast markers (ignore "yet" when it means "not yet" or "so far"). 3. Tally which one shows up most. 4. Check where "however" lands: mid-sentence, or opening a new one? Opening use skews more formal. 5. Ask whether you mix all three freely or lean hard on one. 6. If one word dominates across every sample, that's your default; if it shifts sample to sample, you're mixed. ScriptGrain's free voice profile reads it from a writing sample, alongside the other 44 attributes. ## Examples of contrast words (but, however, yet) in real writing Example: "The report was late, but the numbers held up." Blunt, conversational, no ceremony. Example: "The results were promising. However, the sample size was small." Formal, sets the contrast apart as its own sentence. Example: "She hadn't finished the draft, yet she felt closer to it than ever." Softer, leans on unresolved tension rather than flat contradiction. Three sentences, three completely different moods, and the contrast word is doing a lot of that work. ## How to make AI use your contrast word You can steer this directly, and it takes about three instructions. 1. Tell the model your preferred contrast word: but, however, or yet. 2. If your own samples open sentences with "But", tell it that's allowed. Plenty of style guides still frown on it; your writing doesn't have to agree with them. 3. Ask it to stick with one contrast word throughout a piece, rather than rotating through all three for variety. When a ScriptGrain profile generates text, this attribute travels in the VOICE PROFILE JSON block of the system prompt, under the instruction to treat every attribute as a hard constraint. There's no separate rule bolted on for contrast words specifically; it rides along with everything else. The same profile reaches ChatGPT, Claude and other tools through the API and the MCP server, so they read the same preference. ## How to make AI use 'however' less Cut it at the start of sentences first; that's where it does the most damage to rhythm. 1. Replace "However," opening a sentence with "But". 2. Cut the contrast word entirely where the contrast is already obvious from context. 3. Ban "Moreover" and "Furthermore" in the same instruction, since they belong to the same formal register. That's a fast rewrite pass, and it usually makes a paragraph sound less like a memo. A ScriptGrain profile labelled "but" carries that preference into every draft it writes, and into ChatGPT, Claude and other tools through the API and MCP server. ## Questions ### But vs however: which is more formal? "However" reads more formal, "but" reads more conversational. It's a tendency: "however" tends to appear in reports, academic writing and formal correspondence, while "but" turns up in speech, fiction and casual prose. ScriptGrain stores your own preference as a single label, separate from its formality score. ### However vs yet: what's the actual difference? "However" signals a straightforward contradiction; "yet" often signals something unresolved or surprising alongside the first idea. "The plan failed; however, the team regrouped" reads flatter than "the plan failed, yet the team regrouped", which hints the regrouping was unexpected. Small shift, real difference in tone. ### Can you start a sentence with but? Yes. There's no grammatical rule against it, only a style preference some editors hold onto. Plenty of professional, published writing opens sentences with "But" for punch and pace. If your own samples do this naturally, it's a legitimate feature of your voice, not an error to correct. ### What are contrast words in writing? Contrast words signal a pivot between two ideas: "but", "however", "yet", "although", "while", and similar connectors. They tell a reader that what follows pushes against what came before. Which one a writer defaults to affects tone more than logic, since they largely do the same job with different levels of formality. ### How do I make ChatGPT stop using "however" so much? Tell it directly: replace sentence-opening "However," with "But", and cut the word entirely wherever the contrast is already clear from context. You can also ban the other stock formal connectors in the same instruction. A ScriptGrain profile carries your actual preference automatically through the API and MCP server. ## Related - [Function words attributes](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/function-words) - [Article ratio (the, a, an)](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/the-a-an-ratio) - [Pronoun distribution](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/pronoun-distribution) - [Discourse markers](https://scriptgrain.com/attributes/discourse-markers) - [The anatomy of a writing voice: 45 measured attributes across 8 layers](https://scriptgrain.com/reference/writing-voice-attributes) - [Writing voice hub](https://scriptgrain.com/writing-voice) ## Sources - [How ScriptGrain scores voice match](https://scriptgrain.com/reference/voice-measurement-framework)