This paper focuses on the distribution of conjunctions which express contrast in Modern Hebrew, and the translation problems they pose. The author shows that different conjunctions in Hebrew, usually translated by ‘but’ or related forms, may each be assigned a meaning based on a relative scale of contrastiveness within a semantic hierarchy. The analysis also reveals marked statistical skewing of the occurrence and co-occurrence of various forms in different modes of discourse in Hebrew. The paper examines the actual distribution of these various forms and their distinctive functions and discusses the implications of this analysis for English-Hebrew and Hebrew-English translations.