Starting a sentence with And or But
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- Jaime Lync
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Re: Starting a sentence with And or But
- queeennnkatie
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I guess it all depends on what type of writing you're doing. I suppose dialogue or other stories it should be okay. But officialy paper work, I wouldn't start a sentence with and or but.
But I guess that's up to you!
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My understanding is that it is not against any grammar rule to start a sentence with the words 'and' or 'but' if the sentence is still a complete sentence, which to be complete would need to be complete even if you left out the 'and' or 'but'. I welcome a citation from an official grammar guide that says otherwise.
Example one
Grammatically Incorrect: I went to the mall. And gym.
Reason: "And gym" is a sentence fragment. Test: "Gym" is not a complete sentence.
Example two
Grammatically Correct: I like ice cream. And I like pizza.
Reason: "And I like pizza" is a complete sentence. Test: "I like pizza" is a full sentence. Keep in mind, writing the sentence(s) as follows would also be correct and generally preferred by most writers and readers: "I like ice cream, and I like pizza."
Example three
Grammatically Incorrect: I like ice cream. And, I like pizza.
Reason: The comma is incorrect.
With all that said, I've heard many teachers or other folks advise against using 'and' or 'but' in certain formal writing. That's not a strict grammar rule. It's a piece of advice that they believe makes your writing in that context better in a broader sense than mere grammatical correctness.
In fiction books and poetry, it is allowed to break grammar rules for some greater purpose, namely in the sense of improving the reader's experience or understanding. For example, in fiction or very informal writing it's often okay to intentionally use a grammatically incorrect sentence fragment like "But no" or "And ice cream".
You could even imagine a fiction writer going wild and writing something like the following: "And. Then. They. Did. It."
"Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Virgil, The Aeneid
- Afuglsan
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- frederickmintah
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So according to my best knowledge, we can use the conjunctions And or But to begin a sentence.
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Subordinating conjunctions are like long adverbs which describes a condition, a time or a reason. Examples:
Because the house was not properly attached to the foundation, it was lost in the storm.
Before you go outside, please clean the dishes.
If you are late once more, I will dock your pay.
Correlative conjunctions are paired conjunctions that combine subjects within one sentence:
Neither you nor I will bake that cake.
Both you and I will bake that cake.
Not only will I bake that cake, but you will as well.
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I totally agree. I have always thought this was a big no-no in formal writing. Sure, authors take artistic liberty in books. Still, when authors start sentences with and or but too frequently, it comes across as poor writing. The exception is when this is done in dialogue.Afuglsan wrote:I think it's an absolute no-no in formal writings. If you're writing informally or as a character would in a story, then I think it's okay.
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I read a lot of academic books, and some of them start their sentences with a conjunction. Of course, others don't.