Posts Tagged ‘and’

Q: My English teacher taught me never to begin sentences with ‘because,’ ‘and,’ or ‘but.’ Does this rule still hold, or is it out of date?

A: This has actually never been a rule. It’s possible teachers strongly discourage starting sentences with subordinate conjunctions such as ‘because’ since these words often seduce students into writing fragments-more specifically subordinate clause fragments. These fragments are hard to spot because they contain both a subject and a verb. Some English teachers may have extended this bad advice about starting sentences with subordinate conjunctions to starting with coordinate conjunctions such as ‘and’ or ‘but.’

Incorrect: John stopped seeing Mary. Because he wanted to keep his promises to his wife.

Correct: John stopped seeing Mary because he wanted to keep his promises to his wife.

Correct: Because he wanted to keep his promises to his wife, John stopped seeing Mary.

As long as your sentence is a sentence, and not a sentence fragment, it’s okay to start with ‘and,’ ‘but’ or ‘because.’ And in some circumstances, a sentence fragment is very effective. Teaching students never to begin with a conjunction is pure ignorance or laziness. It disrespects them, confuses them and robs them of stylistic options.

So use your judgment, and when you think it adds value to your message, go ahead and start your sentence with a conjunction.