On the other hand, Steve, if you keep saying / writing the same word, "but... but... but...", you may come across as sounding ignorant. I use albeit not out of pretentiousness (if you think I'm sometimes haughty, I'm no more pretentious than you! ;-) ), but as a variation to constant buts. I'll reconstruct a sentence so that I can "However, ..." rather than "..., although" again. And if you think there's a technical difference 'twixt (does that get me in trouble? ;-) ) albeit & but I'm curious to know what it is. My OED gives He was making progress, albeit rather slowly as an example of its use. Substitute "but" & there is absolutely no change in meaning.

Jim - I'd agree. The BBC has been slipping in both their standard of English & of journalism for a couple of decades. Oddly enough, that red-top turd, Phil McNumpty as Chief Sports Writer was employed in July 2000 - coincidence? I think not! Whilst I consider it a good thing that Auntie is no longer in hock to plummy voices & Received Pronunciation, the standard of English is another matter. And they are hugely influential, I think! The number of their journalists who publish articles & are then picked up by readers on basic factual errors; who are too busy trying to be too clever & trendy & up-to-date & to invent new buzzwords; who can't tell the difference between affect / effect, ensure / insure, "step foot" instead of "set foot" is one that's crept in lately that pisses me off (as I commented here in another thread)! And they all seem to rely on spell-checkers instead of actual proof reading these days!!