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It's not literally double "but"s, but here's the sentence that I'm talking about:

The old system had its flaws, but nevertheless it was preferable to the new one.

I picked this up from oxford dictionary, by the way, and I'm entirely sure that "but" and "nevertheless" have the same meaning, don't they? (I've looked it up my thesaurus). Isn't it a bit redundant?

Ryan M
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user516076
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    Many times but and nevertheless come together. Just take a look at this phrasing: The old system had its flaws, but it was preferable to the new one nevertheless. – Lucian Sava May 15 '21 at 06:24

1 Answers1

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Isn't it a bit redundant?

Yes, in that it would mean more or less the same thing without "nevertheless," but adding the extra word does add a bit of emphasis: it emphasizes the fact that the old system's flaws were not enough to make it less desirable than the new system.

Also, note that "nevertheless" isn't a coordinating conjunction, while "but" is. Thus, if you wanted to use only "nevertheless," you'd need to replace the comma with a semicolon and add a comma afterward:

The old system had its flaws; nevertheless, it was preferable to the new one.

Ryan M
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