Do you teach that it's wrong to start a sentence with and, but, and because?

Amtmann

If you do, please stop it. I've just spent the evening helping two friends of mine, both of whom are primary school teachers, to apply for teaching positions. I spent hours rewriting parts of their applications. They refused to allow me to start a sentence with because, even though it was grammatically correct and sounded contextually perfect. They believe that it's wrong to start a sentence with and, but, and because. They were given this information in Saint Pat's.

Well, it isn't wrong to start sentences with those words - at least not always. The annoying thing is that these girls are going to end up perpetuating this myth by teaching it to hundreds and hundreds of school children over the next few decades.

So: have you been taught this myth at teacher training college as well? And, more importantly, do you teach it to your students?

ShamoBuc

Alot of principals are 'old school' and I can see why your friends would not like to start sentences with those conjunctions in application letters - I wouldn't either!!
It is of course gramatically correct to use them at the start of a sentence, but I prefer to teach the options to them. From experience, you get And this, And that and And the other thing. Very hard to read. Kids do not necessarily see the contextual differences - "you said we could sir"!!!

Amtmann

Hmm...Why not just teach them the difference between a sentence and a fragment? You clearly know your grammar, but my wider point is that a lot of teachers don't, and seem to think that it is categorically wrong to start a sentence with any of the three words mentioned above.

winterlight

It's not wrong to use these words at the start of sentences. Your teacher friends are horribly misinformed.

I trained in university of London. I tend to discourage children from starting a sentence with 'and.' It's not that it's wrong, it's just that it's overused.

However I do teach children to use 'but' and 'because' at the start of sentences. They are what we'd call 'logical connectives' and I've done whole lessons on how to use them correctly!

Eg

Because it was Saturday, I was not at school. (the comma here is very important as it separates the subordinate clause and main clause)

And

John, Patrick and Sean wanted to play football. But Barry wanted to play hurling.
(the sentence starting with 'but' must be preceded by a sentence about something different.)

Skerries

I never start my sentences wiyth those 3, it must be something that i picked up in school and have to think of other ways to start

cucbuc

" Because" can make sense at the start of a sentence.
I cant think of a use for "and" or "but" at the start of a sentence which would make sense though, as they really only read properly as conjunctions.
I've been teaching for donkeys years. (I did go to Pats but I think I picked up the grammar rules in primary school.)

D4RK ONION

cucbuc wrote: »

" Because" can make sense at the start of a sentence.
I cant think of a use for "and" or "but" at the start of a sentence which would make sense though, as they really only read properly as conjunctions.

But that's where you're wrong. There's plenty of ways to start a sentence with these words!

I've been teaching for donkeys years. (I did go to Pats but I think I picked up the grammar rules in primary school.)

And that's why it'd be best if we all started teaching the proper grammatically correct rules

(bonus round:

"because" can always be used at the start of a sentence

Oh yeah, I went there.)

cucbuc

D4RK ONION wrote: »

But that's where you're wrong. There's plenty of ways to start a sentence with these words!



And that's why it'd be best if we all started teaching the proper grammatically rules

(bonus round:

"because" can always be used at the start of a sentence

Oh yeah, I went there.)

Hmm.:p:)

ShamoBuc

cucbuc wrote: »

Hmm.:p:)

And that was funny.;)

D4RK ONION

ShamoBuc wrote: »

And that was funny.;)

But my point still stands, right?

cucbuc

D4RK ONION wrote: »

But my point still stands, right?

Well, not sure if it was the effect of the 2 nurofen plus I took yesterday before I heard about the recall :eek:, but I did a quick check online re using conjunctions at the start of a sentence. And it seems you have a good point. Because I am open to correction I'm rethinking this one....


But I still don't like the look of it!:p ,especially the "and".

thesimpsons

I'm just puzzled why you were spending hours helping to rewrite their applications with terminology, while it might be grammatically correct, just looks and feels wrong to a vast percentage of people. Some of these people potentially being the principals who will be receiving the applications, and would also wonder why the applicants started sentences with what is generally perceived to be incorrect sentence structure. There is a time and a place to make a point but I'd feel that a letter of application wouldn't be the time nor the place.

Amtmann

thesimpsons wrote: »

I'm just puzzled why you were spending hours helping to rewrite their applications with terminology, while it might be grammatically correct, just looks and feels wrong to a vast percentage of people. Some of these people potentially being the principals who will be receiving the applications, and would also wonder why the applicants started sentences with what is generally perceived to be incorrect sentence structure. There is a time and a place to make a point but I'd feel that a letter of application wouldn't be the time nor the place.

I'm a technical writer. When I start a sentence with and, but, or because, it never looks wrong.

If something looks and feels wrong, that's because it is probably a fragment rather than a sentence. You never notice when something is right.

If principals don't know that it is perfectly grammatical to start a sentence with those words, then in my opinion they are not fit to teach English to our children.

Insect Overlord

I remember my 5th/6th Class teacher telling us that it's best practice to avoid starting sentences with and/because/but because so few people know how to use them correctly. Some students were quietly told to work away and use those words at the start of sentences because they knew how to do so, but the majority would have found the grammar rules too complicated at that age.

As was mentioned above, using this guideline also makes sure kids don't hand up paragraphs/essays in which every sentence starts with "And then I..."

b743k

Insect Overlord wrote: »

I remember my 5th/6th Class teacher telling us that it's best practice to avoid starting sentences with and/because/but because so few people know how to use them correctly. Some students were quietly told to work away and use those words at the start of sentences because they knew how to do so, but the majority would have found the grammar rules too complicated at that age.

As was mentioned above, using this guideline also makes sure kids don't hand up paragraphs/essays in which every sentence starts with "And then I..."

The same thing happened in my 6th class. We were given a very quick lesson and our essays were checked for a few weeks afterwards, 4 of the 27 were given permission as they understood the rules (3 of them had a secondary school teacher as a parent). The teacher decided that it wouldn't be efficient to spend a lot of time on it as not everyone would get it and it was not really necessary for everyone to know, just know not to use them.