Can I use the conjunction ‘sed’ in the following manner?
philosophiam amo sed pecuniam amas. I love philosophy but you love money (a bit silly, I know).
If not, how would I write it?
I guess you could, it doesn’t look wrong to me. But I’m not an expert.
It’s perfectly alright. Is there a reason you’re suspicious about it?
You could play around with the other adversative-ish conjunctions: their nuances of meaning and their various placements in the sentence (often postpositive).
at (ast if you’re feeling poetic)
verum/vero
tamen
autem…
Or as so often in Latin you don’t even need a conjunction. Two clauses that are strongly contrasted can simply be placed side-by-side with maybe a bit of sleight-of-hand with the word order for maximum effect.
amo philosophiam; pecuniam amas.
And you might also consider ways of avoiding repeating the same verb twice; you could use a synonym, or drop the first verb and replace it with ego. In fact, expressing the subjects here isn’t inappropriate since the contrast is expressive.
philosophiam ego; tu vero pecuniam amas!
None of these is more right than the another, but some may be more elegant. Play around until you’re satisfied.
I’m a beginner who has only gotten so far as chapter two of Wheelock’s. My knowledge of Latin is extremely limited so, while the sentence above looked fine to me, I wanted to make sure it is a valid Latin grammatical structure.
Thank you both for your help and adz000 for your extra explanations.