in contrast

Pronunciation

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Expression

Expression in contrast

1. You use in contrast when you want to stress the difference between two things.

   January was beautiful. In contrast, February was cold and wet.

   In contrast to what I know about you, you’re not as bad as I thought.

Usage

Don't confuse this with on the contrary. You use in contrast to say different things about different subjects (e.g., X is short. In contrast, Y is tall.).

With on the contrary, both sentences make similar claims about the same subject. The sentence before on the contrary is negative and the sentence with on the contrary is positive, (e.g., X is not short. On the contrary, it is tall.).

Related words

• contrast