And I Wondered: Is It All Right to Start My Sentence That Way?

An erudite reader has asked my opinion on the permissibility of beginning a sentence with a conjunction. This is an interesting case, as it’s one of the few times when I will tell you that your high school grammar teacher was wrong: It is not always wrong to start a sentence with and, but, or or. However, there is a very important caveat to be aware of if you intend to break this rule.

Beginning a sentence with a conjunction can be a useful way to spice up a paragraph; it can help to transition between two thoughts, and it’s useful in avoiding run-on sentences. But it should never, ever, be overused. [did you catch that?]

Here’s the low-down I found on another website. I’m reproducing it here because I couldn’t have said it better myself, and I love their example sentences.

Yes, you can begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction!

Some teachers will tell you that beginning a sentence with a coordinating conjunction is wrong. Teachers will typically tell you this because they are trying to help you avoid writing fragments. Other times teachers give this advice because their preference is that a sentence not begin with a coordinating conjunction.

What you should remember is that you break no grammar rule if you begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. Because you might be breaking your instructors’ rules, however, you should ask what their preferences are.

If you decide to begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction, keep these three things in mind:

• Be sure that a main clause follows the coordinating conjunction.
• Do not use a coordinating conjunction to begin every sentence. Use this option only when it makes the flow of your ideas more effective.
• Do not use a comma after the coordinating conjunction. Coordinating conjunctions are not transitional expressions like for example or first of all. You will rarely use punctuation after them.

Here are some examples:

While I was answering the telephone, Buster, my cat, jumped onto the kitchen counter and swatted all of my jalapeño-stuffed olives onto the floor. So I had to rinse off the cat hair and breadcrumbs sticking to these delicacies before I could add them to the salad.

Flying down the bumpy path, Genette hit a rock with the front wheel of her mountain bike, flew over the handlebars, and crashed into a clump of prickly palmetto bushes. Yet even this accident would not deter her from completing the race.

Only when an interrupter immediately follows the coordinating conjunction do you need to use commas. Read this example:

We hoped that decorating the top of Christine’s cupcake with a dead grasshopper would freak her out. But, to our amazement, she just popped the whole thing in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

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Hope that clears up the little fiction that grammar teachers everywhere seem intent on perpetrating on otherwise innocent and unsuspecting students.

Tags: conjunctions, punctuation, usage