Never Start Sentences with Conjunctions: And why not?

Is it Wrong to Start a Sentence with And or But?

Few writing “rules” have been drilled into students’ heads as stubbornly and as incorrectly as this one:

“Never start a sentence with a conjunction.”

If you grew up in English-speaking schools, you probably heard it from teachers, saw their red-pen deletions, and withstood their grammar scolds. The warning has always sounded as if it came from on high, an immutable law handed down from Shakespeare himself.

But here’s the truth: pure bunk.

Great writers—from Abraham Lincoln to contemporary journalists—have started sentences with conjunctions such as and and but for centuries. Not only is it allowed, but it’s one of the most natural and effective things you can do to make your writing flow.

So let’s settle the question once and for all: Is it wrong to start a sentence with And or But or any other coordinating conjunction?

What Are Coordinating Conjunctions?

Before debunking this bunk, let’s ground ourselves in some grammar. English has seven coordinating conjunctions, often remembered with the acronym FANBOYS, although I prefer BOYFANS:

But, Or, Yet, For, And, Nor, So

These seven words connect words, phrases, and clauses that are grammatically parallel. They can join items in a series (red, white, and blue), or they can join two independent clauses with a comma (like the sentence you’re reading).

Where Did the “No Conjunctions” Rule Come From?

The culprit is not grammar but pedagogy. Faced with children stringing together endless and-then-I-did-this sentences, school teachers invented a “rule” to stop the chatter:

Don’t start a sentence with and.

The rule worked. Little ones stopped stacking conjunctions in their conversations, but unfortunately, they grew up thinking the rule applied to their writing.

Just look at the finger-wagging that went on in previous centuries.

• "Or never begins a sentence, paragraph, or chapter." James Brown, The American System of English Grammar, 1826 Merriam-Webster (use CTRL-F to search for "James").
  

• "Teach the elimination of but, so, and, because, at the beginning of a sentence." Documents of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1916 Merriam-Webster (use CTRL-F to search for "Documents").
  

• "A sentence should not commence with the conjunctions and, for, or however." George Payn Quackenbos, An Advanced Course of Composition and Rhetoric, 1854 Merriam-Webster (use CTRL-F to search for "Payn").

The finger-waggers stood on shaky grammatical ground. The heavyweights disagreed and held nothing back.

Here's What the Experts Say

• Henry Fowler, the towering English grammarian, put it plainly in the New Fowler’s Modern English Usage (p. 52):

"There is a persistent belief that it is improper to begin a sentence with And, but this prohibition has been cheerfully ignored by standard authors from Anglo-Saxon times onwards." Wikipedia (use CTRL-F to search for "cheerfully").

• Wilson Follett, whose Modern American Usage has graced my bookshelf for decades, debunked the bunk this way:

"A prejudice lingers from a bygone time that sentences should not begin with and. The supposed rule is without foundation in grammar, logic, or art. And can join separate sentences and their meanings just as but can both join sentences and disjoin meanings." Wikipedia (use CTRL-F to search for "lingers").

• Merriam-Webster nailed it:

It's perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with and (as well as with words such as but or or). Using and at the beginning of a sentence has been a practice for over a thousand years. Merriam-Webster (use CTRL-F to search for "thousand").

Use the above passages to correct any misguided editors who try to outlaw a front-loaded conjunction.

Examples from Great Writers

Many of our greatest writers start sentences with conjunctions.

• Ernest Hemingway "So I went to Spain to see bullfights and to try to write about them for myself." Death in the Afternoon (1932). FadedPage.com (scroll down and in the left panel click "HTML" and then use CTRL-F to search for "so I went").
  

• Abraham Lincoln, in the Gettysburg Address "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground." Cornell Library (use CTRL-F to search for "but, in").
  

• Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes "Courts proceed step by step. And we now have to consider whether the cautious statement in the former case marked the limit of the law." Johnson v. United States, 228 U.S. 457, 458 (1913). Justia.com (use CTRL-F to search for "and we now")
  

• Justice Hugo Black "They knew that free speech might be the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny." Hugo Black, The Bill of Rights, 35 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 865, 880-81 (1960). ValpoScholar (use CTRL-F to search for "but they" and then press "Enter").

Examples from the King James Bible

One of the most influential works in the history of English prose—the King James Bible—regularly begins sentences with conjunctions.

Open the first chapter of Genesis and you'll find sentence after sentence starting with And:

• “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”Genesis 1:3
  

• “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”Genesis 1:5
  

• “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place.”Genesis 1:9

  
  

In fact, Genesis 1 contains more than twenty sentences beginning with And.

If starting a sentence with a conjunction were truly a grammatical sin, one of the most revered works in English literature would stand condemned.

Examples from the Media

Major national publications routinely start sentences with conjunctions.

• The Washington Post "So now it’s spending time, and you guessed it: They’re spending anyway. Nor is it the case . . . that only profligate Democrats are pushing for increases while virtuous Republicans resist. When the Democrats took control of the Senate, Republicans were quick to say that there went fiscal discipline. But in fact they’re both at it; spending is the most bipartisan activity in Washington. And most of the action thus far has been in the Republican House." Count 'em! Four sentences out of six start with conjunctions. Washington Post, June 25, 2001, p. A14. (Note: No link available. When I read the editorial back in 2001, I wrote it down verbatim, knowing I could use this in my writing courses.)
  

• The New York Times   “But you may not realize that writers of ‘informational texts’ — that is, nonfiction with the purpose of informing an audience about a topic — often borrow these same techniques for the same reason: to grab people’s attention.” NYT (use CTRL-F to search for "but").
  

• The Wall Street Journal “But I had a vision: I would play in the National Football League. I wrote out my life’s goals on a poster and placed it over my bed.” WSJ (use CTRL-F to search for "vision") (might require a subscription).

The Real Rule

The real rule is simple: You may start sentences with conjunctions, provided you use them purposefully. Don’t string them endlessly one after another. Instead, use them for emphasis or contrast. Ensure that what follows is a complete thought unless you are deliberately crafting a fragment for style.

How This Myth Hurts Writers

Believing this myth can damage your writing in several ways.

First, failing to use the word But to start a sentence will stifle natural flow. If the information in the next sentence contrasts with what you just wrote, you want to alert the reader to that fact. If the word But is missing from your bag of writing tricks, you’re stuck with using “However + comma” to start the next sentence or “On the other hand” or “In contrast.”

A good old “But” jolts the reader and announces the contrast.

Second, failing to break this so-called rule leads to a reluctance to debunk other bunk. Have mercy on your style if you never use a sentence fragment. Woe be unto your readers if you never split an infinitive. And say goodbye to emphasis and transition if you blindly believe you should never use the passive voice.

And third, you’ll deny yourself one of the best organization-signalling devices if you refuse to start a sentence with And. Above I wrote about damaging your writing in several ways. The “And third” alerted you to the end of the list.  For another example, read the last sentence of the preceding paragraph and see how my front-loaded And tagged the sentence as the last of three showing the consequences of failing to thumb your nose at writing myths.

Learn More: Write Better Right Now

Debunking myths is just the beginning. To write well, you need a framework grounded in grammar, style, and real-world examples. That’s what my 7-hour video course Write Better Right Now provides. It features clear explanations, examples from great writers, and practical techniques you can apply immediately.

You can use this course like a video book or a video resource.

• Want to brush up on strategic use of the passive voice? Then check the table of contents and watch section 6.07 of the course.

• Need a refresher on the differences between that and which? Just click section 8.05 of Write Better Right Now.

• Or want to learn how to get your Flesch Writing Ease number? Click section 7.02(d).

Click here to learn more and enroll.

Key Takeaway: Break the Myth, Write Better

Yes, you can start sentences with conjunctions.

The prohibition is pure bunk.

The King James translators didn't fear the word And.

And neither should you.