nevertheless and but can be used very similarly . 'Nevertheless' is much more formal and used more often in essays / textbooks or academic settings (not always though, some well spoken people would say it in everyday conversation) . Nevertheless = never the less . As in 'despite ____ it is still ____' . An example would be " Tom was very short for his age, nevertheless he managed to excel at basketball . " You could say the same thing with 'but' if you wanted to be less formal "Tom was very short for his age, but he still excelled at basketball" . 'But' is more casual . And while 'nevertheless' and 'but' are quite interchangeable both have slightly different connotations. 'but' is more often used when making excuses . An example would be " I wanted to go to the party but I didn't have enough money" Notice how this wouldn't make sense if you replaced 'but' with 'nevertheless' ? 'Whereas' is more pointing out a difference (compared to 'nevertheless' which is more sort of justifying something or pointing out the positive in something - the person isn't less at ____ despite being ___). An example of whereas would be " Tom liked sports whereas Trish liked partying" . 'Nevertheless' would not make sense here? More examples : But as an excuse or a disagreement : "I like you but I think we should be friends " "go and clean your room " "but I dont want to !!!" "She was pretty but she was mean" Nevertheless: as a way of point out that ___ doesn't necessarily mean that ___ is bad . " Liking somebody is not as much as loving somebody nevertheless it was better than nothing" "The room was small yet nevertheless charming" "She was ugly yet nevertheless kind." Whereas : pointing out a difference between two things "She was only interested in being friends whereas he wanted something more" "The boys room was messy whereas his hair was always perfect" "She was pretty whereas he was plain."