In French, there are two main ways to say “on the other hand”: par contre and en revanche. While both are widely accepted as synonyms, there is actually a subtle difference between the two, which we’ll explain below.
en revanche, par contre
on the other hand
En Revanche, Par Contre
En revanche
Explained very clearly on the French site Sophieviguiercorrectrice.com, en revanche means “on the other hand” in the context of providing “positive information, an asset, an advantage, compared to the information which precedes it.”
In this example sentence, en revanche could also translate to “yet” and “however”.
Marie n’est pas douée en languges mais en revanche elle est très forte en maths.
Marie isn’t very good at languages. On the other hand, she’s good at math.
Here’s another example sentence which illustrates the explanation. For the English translation we’re simply using the word “but” to mean “but on the other hand”. The pronoun y means “there”. This post on French Today provides an explanation of y.
C’est loin mais en revanche ça vaut la peine d’y aller.
It’s far but it’s worth going.
Par contre
Following the explanation on Sophieviguiercorrectrice.com, par contre means “on the other hand” implying “the introduction of a disadvantage, of negative information.”
Nicolas est très fort en allemand. Par contre, il n’est pas très doué pour l’anglais.
Nicolas is very good at German. But, on the other hand he’s not very good at English.
Here’s one more example:
Gérald est très beau, par contre il n’est pas du tout intelligent.
Gerald is very handsome. However, he’s not intelligent at all.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! Now you have a very good undertanding of how to use en revanche and par contre in French. Now check out our related lesson covering cependant (yet, nevertheless).
