Spanish word of the week: en cambio

En cambio is a phrase that means but, however or whereas.

One thing you may need to do in Spanish is to contrast and connect different ideas or pieces of information. The most common way to do this is with pero, (meaning but), but you can also use the phrase en cambio:

Lo detesto. Lucas, en cambio, lo encuentra encantador. I detest him, but Lucas finds him charming.

How you translate en cambio is going to depend on how formal you want to be, and how exactly the Spanish sentence or phrase is structured. Apart from but, you have the following options:

Lo detesto. Lucas, en cambio, lo encuentra encantador. I detest him. Lucas, however, finds him charming.

Yo nunca llego a tiempo, en cambio ella es muy puntual. I never arrive on time, whereas she is very punctual.

La rentabilidad de la renta fija es también baja, pero es segura. La rentabilidad de la bolsa, en cambio, es alta, pero implica riesgos. Profits on fixed rate accounts are low, but secure. Profits on the Stock Exchange, on the other hand, are high, but entail risks.

Come back next week to read about our next Spanish word of the week!