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I am an English learner in mainland China. I have a question regarding the structure "On the one hand... On the other hand" and would really appreciate it if anyone can elucidate this point.

Please mind that I already know from other posts that "On the other hand" can be used independently without a previous "On the one hand".

My question is: if I have already used "on the one hand", do I have to use "on the other hand" later? Or is it okay to use "on the one hand" followed by contrasting phrases like "by contrast"?

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    "On the other hand" is by no means absolutely required.
    – Matt Samuel
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 6:54
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    @MattSamuel Very true, but there must be a second element to the discussion prefixed in some other way such as otherwise or, as the OP says, by contrast. Without the second element the use of on the one hand would be illogical. Also I would say that any argument introduced with on the one hand should be binary as humans have, at most, two hands; if more than two options are discussed then the first one should be introduced using a form like firstly or first of all.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 7:23
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    @BoldBen I wholeheartedly agree.
    – Matt Samuel
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 7:23
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    Please look up a good resource online and let us know what you found. Good Luck.
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 9:37
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    @Kris In this case, I'm not sure what kind of resource would definitively answer OP's question, or even how he'd go about searching. No, the question is fine so far as background research goes, but is probably too subjective (which is one reason I believe it'll be hard to find a resource that answers it; it's a question of style, not canon).
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 14:25

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The usual construction in the English (or any similar) language would be:

On the one hand... On the other [hand]... — Cambridge Dict.

"On the one hand I'd like a job that pays more, but on the other hand I enjoy the work I'm doing at the moment."

Sometimes, we do not explicitly state "on the one hand", but it is often assumed.

The following Google Ngram shows that "on the other hand" is used more frequently than "on the one hand".

Google Ngrams

On the other hand, using "on the one hand" without "on the other hand" will sound odd, or illogical, to a native speaker at least. There may not be any rules regarding this other than general usage trends.

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  • I noticed that you put the word "hand" in the square brackets, does it imply that you may even simply say "on the other" without "hand" when the two relevant sentences are very close to each other?
    – gamebm
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 11:00
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    @gamebm well on the one hand, it's good to complete the phrase as it is, and on the other, you can remove words from commonly used expressions and still convey the same message
    – NVZ ♦
    Commented Jul 8, 2021 at 11:27

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