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Lorikeet
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1877
Location: San Francisco
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 Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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| snd2tsy wrote: |
...By the way, I recalled my teacher once told me that not to start a sentence with conjunctions like "And", "Because" etc. because there is nothing for them to join. So whenever I feel urge to break the rule, I use other similar expression instead.
What I would like to ask is how straight is this rule ? I mean is it definitely, absolutely, straightly no exception or it depends ? The reason I ask is I've read numerous counter examples in newspaper and stories like "Half Blood Prince". |
I try not to start a sentence with "but" or "and" as well, but sometimes I disregard the "rule" and do it anyway. I usually do it in more informal circumstances. I might do it on the board here, but probably not in a cover letter explaining why I wanted a job, for example. I don't know if it's one of those "rules" that no one follows anymore, or if it's a formal vs. informal thing. |
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snd2tsy
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:15 am Post subject: |
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| Lorikeet wrote: |
| snd2tsy wrote: |
...By the way, I recalled my teacher once told me that not to start a sentence with conjunctions like "And", "Because" etc. because there is nothing for them to join. So whenever I feel urge to break the rule, I use other similar expression instead.
What I would like to ask is how straight is this rule ? I mean is it definitely, absolutely, straightly no exception or it depends ? The reason I ask is I've read numerous counter examples in newspaper and stories like "Half Blood Prince". |
I try not to start a sentence with "but" or "and" as well, but sometimes I disregard the "rule" and do it anyway. I usually do it in more informal circumstances. I might do it on the board here, but probably not in a cover letter explaining why I wanted a job, for example. I don't know if it's one of those "rules" that no one follows anymore, or if it's a formal vs. informal thing. |
Thank you for reminding me not to do that in a resume.  No wonder my job hunting always turns out unsuccessful. And I thought it was my fortune !
I forgot whether that rule was about formal and informal thing. But according to the teacher, the reason that we shouldn't do that is grammatical. Because conjunctions are used to connect sentences (and other things of course, which you know better than I do.  ) and since there is nothing to be joined when it is at the beginning of a sentence we shouldn't do that.
By the way, I just violated the "rule" three times with "And", "But" and "Because" and I suspect using "and since" is also incorrect because these 2 are conjunctions. If I want to rewrite them in a formal way, any suggestion how should I do it ? |
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Lorikeet
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1877
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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| snd2tsy wrote: |
Thank you for reminding me not to do that in a resume. No wonder my job hunting always turns out unsuccessful. And I thought it was my fortune !
I forgot whether that rule was about formal and informal thing. But according to the teacher, the reason that we shouldn't do that is grammatical. Because conjunctions are used to connect sentences (and other things of course, which you know better than I do. ) and since there is nothing to be joined when it is at the beginning of a sentence we shouldn't do that.
By the way, I just violated the "rule" three times with "And", "But" and "Because" and I suspect using "and since" is also incorrect because these 2 are conjunctions. If I want to rewrite them in a formal way, any suggestion how should I do it ? |
Well, mostly I'd add commas, although some people might add semi-colons to be more formal. You could change "but" to "However," and start the sentence that way. I am not so sure that you can't begin a sentence with "because" as long as you have the second clause in the sentence, but you could also use "since". I'm not an "English teacher" if that means someone who is sticking to old rules because they are old. Punctuation is not my forte, either.  That said, to me, this would do:
"Thank you for reminding me not to do that in a resume. No wonder my job hunting always turns out unsuccessfully, and I thought it was my fortune !
I forgot whether that rule was about formal and informal things, but according to the teacher, the reason that we shouldn't do that is grammatical. Since conjunctions are used to connect sentences (and other things of course, which you know better than I do ), and since there is nothing to be joined when it is at the beginning of a sentence, we shouldn't do that." |
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snd2tsy
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Lorikeet wrote: |
| snd2tsy wrote: |
Thank you for reminding me not to do that in a resume. No wonder my job hunting always turns out unsuccessful. And I thought it was my fortune !
I forgot whether that rule was about formal and informal thing. But according to the teacher, the reason that we shouldn't do that is grammatical. Because conjunctions are used to connect sentences (and other things of course, which you know better than I do. ) and since there is nothing to be joined when it is at the beginning of a sentence we shouldn't do that.
By the way, I just violated the "rule" three times with "And", "But" and "Because" and I suspect using "and since" is also incorrect because these 2 are conjunctions. If I want to rewrite them in a formal way, any suggestion how should I do it ? |
Well, mostly I'd add commas, although some people might add semi-colons to be more formal. You could change "but" to "However," and start the sentence that way. I am not so sure that you can't begin a sentence with "because" as long as you have the second clause in the sentence, but you could also use "since". I'm not an "English teacher" if that means someone who is sticking to old rules because they are old. Punctuation is not my forte, either. That said, to me, this would do:
"Thank you for reminding me not to do that in a resume. No wonder my job hunting always turns out unsuccessfully, and I thought it was my fortune !
I forgot whether that rule was about formal and informal things, but according to the teacher, the reason that we shouldn't do that is grammatical. Since conjunctions are used to connect sentences (and other things of course, which you know better than I do ), and since there is nothing to be joined when it is at the beginning of a sentence, we shouldn't do that." |
Dear Lorikeet,
Thank you very much for explaining. I don't know how to express my appreciation but if more "very" helps, I think it will occupy at least 10 lines. 
Yes, that's what I had in mind if I were to rewrite it but isn't that "Since" is also a conjunction ? Anyway, I don't think that's a problem because I have seen lots of sentences written that way. I think I am just being too fastidious.
Thanks again. |
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