Question for the hivemind:

I'm trying to come up with precise translations for a list of transitional phrases, i.e., something that will give the gist of how you use the expression and not just a bunch of howevers and therefores.

The expressions in question are "par contre" and "en revanche", which have come to mean the same thing in French (although the French equivalent of the Buffistas would surely disagree on that point). Both of my (very complete) French/English dictionaries here give "on the other hand" as the only translation.

1) Can you use "on the other hand" without "on the one hand"? I think you can, but one of my authors says no.

2) Do you see "however," "nevertheless," and "on the other hand" as equivalents?

1) Can you use "on the other hand" without "on the one hand"?

People absolutely do. And I'm not getting into the whole prescriptivist/descriptivist thing on that one!

2) Do you see "however," "nevertheless," and "on the other hand" as equivalents?

Not immediately, but on second thought, maybe? I would say so, but on the other hand, maybe not. However, maybe not. Nevertheless, maybe not. OK, I think not "nevertheless."

I agree with Jesse

Timelies all!

Have a headache and various aches and pains. So of course, there is nothing in the house for pain relief. Bleah.

I find pressing on the bridge of my nose helps relieve a headache just a little.

I hardly ever say "on the one hand", but I use "on the other hand" all the time.

I would not describe the other words as equivalent, either. However, I could probably use them interchangeably. Nevertheless, they seem to have different connotations.

The wording of your answers is cracking me up. Stop messing with my mind people! It's bad enough I spend half my day on these questions.

OK, specifically, OTOH seems like saying "here's an objection to that thing I just said, it didn't occur to me before, maybe I should rethink", however=but, nevertheless means "ignore anything to the contrary of what I'm about to say because this is what we're going to do".

That could just be me.

I don't think I've ever said, "on the one hand" but I do say, "on the other hand" quite a bit and "on the third hand" more often than my coworkers would probably like.

I agree that "nevertheless" definitely gives off more of a "despite all that's gone before" vibe than the other two.

Like I said, I'm trying to give them a more precise idea of how it works, regardless of whether it would always be translated that way. "Conversely" is probably the most accurate, but that seems a bit stuffy.