When is it OK to start a sentence with but?

Question

In a book I am reading, the author starts sentences with but and sometimes AND and BECAUSE.

Can you start a sentence with those words when a character is not talking?

Answer 1

It's OK whenever you want to introduce an opposition or a contrast.
The so-called "rule" has been around for a long time and it's hard to kill it, as it has been with the equally silly "rule" about "Never split an infinitive."
But beginning a sentence with "But" (or with "And") is perfectly OK:
"Many legal writers believe that but, if used to begin a sentence, is either incorrect or loosely informal. Is it?

No. But the superstition is hard to dispel. Usage critics have been trying to dispel it for some time. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the great H.W. Fowler dispatched an editor who wanted to change a but to however at the beginning of a sentence:

"It is wrong[, said the editor,] to start a sentence with 'But'. I know Macaulay does it, but it is bad English. The word should either be dropped entirely or the sentence altered to contain the word 'however'." That ungrammatical piece of nonsense was written by the editor of a scientific periodical to a contributor who had found his English polished up for him in proof, & protested; both parties being men of determination, the article got no further than proof. It is wrong to start a sentence with "but"! It is wrong to end a sentence with a preposition! It is wrong to split an infinitive! See the article FETISHES for these & other such rules of thumb & for references to articles in which it is shown how misleading their sweet simplicity is.1

When Sir Ernest Gowers revised Fowler in 1965, he treated the question with and:

That it is a solecism to begin a sentence with and is a faintly lingering superstition. The OED gives examples ranging from the 10th to the 19th c.; the Bible is full of them.2

"Faintly lingering" is a good description of what the superstition is doing nowadays. It isn't supported in books on rhetoric, grammar, or usage--though several try to eradicate it. I do my part in A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage3 and in The Elements of Legal Style4--in the latter book by quoting two sentences from Justice Holmes’s judicial opinions.

Webster's Dictionary of English Usage—generally ultrapermissive, but thorough in marshaling previous discussions on point—found unanimity among language critics:

Part of the folklore of usage is the belief that there is something wrong in beginning a sentence with but:

Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with "but." If that'’s what you learned, unlearn it--here is no stronger word at the start. It announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is primed for the change

--Zinsser 1976

Everybody who mentions this question agrees with Zinsser. The only generally expressed warning is not to follow the but with a comma....5

Perhaps we can all agree that beginning a sentence with but isn't wrong, slipshod, loose, or the like. But is it less formal? I don't think so. In fact, the question doesn’t even reside on the plane of formality. The question I'd pose is, What is the best word to do the job? William Zinsser says, quite rightly, that but is the best word to introduce a contrast.6 I invariably change however, when positioned at the beginning of a sentence, to but. Professional editors such as John Trimble regularly do the same thing.7

Sheridan Baker, in his fine book The Complete Stylist, recommends that writers choose but over however in the initial position:

however. Bury it between commas, or replace it with but or nevertheless.

Poor

However, the day had not been entirely lost.

Improved

But the day had not been entirely lost.

Poor

However, the script that Alcuin invented became the forerunner of modern handwriting.

Improved

The script that Alcuin invented, however, became the forerunner of modern handwriting.8

Elsewhere in the book, Baker says: "But (not followed by a comma) always heads its turning sentence....I am sure, however, that however is always better buried in the sentence between commas; But for the quick turn; the inlaid however for the more elegant sweep."9

Professional editors understand the wisdom of Baker's and others' advice. Good writing--formal writing--—often contains a great many sentences beginning with but and (a little less frequently) and. A recent front page of The New York Times,contained a dozen sentences beginning with but or and:

• " Pentagon officials said today that they were prepared to deliver large amounts of emergency aid to victims of Hurricane Andrew on Monday, the day it devastated South Florida. But they did not do so because neither President Bush nor other civilian officials ordered a large-scale Federal response to the devastation until late Thursday."10

• "But interviews with officials at numerous Federal agencies suggest that there was a breakdown in communication and coordination at top levels of the Government."11

• "After the storm smashed into South Florida early Monday, Mr. Bush declared a major disaster and flew to Miami to inspect the damage. But neither he nor the Federal Emergency Management Agency directed the armed forces to deliver all the aid they were ready to send to storm victims."12

• "But the truly radical part of the plan approved by the City Council this week has nothing to do with burning trash and every hing to do with recycling it."13

• "But at least one crucial question remains: Will it ever really happen?"14

• "It has been three years since the Council passed the city's first recycling law, a program many rejoiced in. But most environmentalists and city officials now agree it floundered about as badly as such a plan ever has...."15

• "'Scale is everything in this kind of program,' said John Schall, a visiting professor at Yale University and the lead consultant on the city’s new solid-waste management plan. 'And this will have the biggest scale you ever saw.'"16

• "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often cast in terms of sticks and stones and broken bones. But it is also a war of words."17

•"And Israeli references to the piece of land commonly known as the West Bank now generally avoid the words 'Judea and Samaria,' terms of biblical origin...rejected by Palestinians."18

• "This language barrier may not seem like a major matter. But labels count, and they often reveal differences in political points of view as surely as ballots and bullets do."19

• "But 'occupied' sounds harsh and unfair to some."20

• "But 'settlements' can be a loaded word bo some people, especially on the Israeli right, because to them it suggests an alien intrusion."21

But (someone might say) we'’re talking here about formal legal writing, not newspapers! I'll answer by quoting from what most would agree is formal legal writing. In The Federalist Papers,honly the least distinguished writer--—Jay--abstained. Madison and Hamilton regularly began sentences with but and and:

Answer 2

It's OK to use the words AND,BECAUSE, and BUT at the beginning of a sentence, as long as the sentence is in dialouge.(meaning what a character says) It's OK because in dialouge, a character speaks as any other person would talk, and when people talk, they don't always use correct grammar, which makes using the words AND, BUT, and, BECAUSE at the beginning of a sentence of dialouge. Sometimes, though, it is OK to use the words AND,BUT, and BECAUSE at the beginning of a sentence, as long as it's classified as an adverb clause or adjective clause.(not sure which one though. It may be both, but I can't really remember) Here's an example:"Because Sally missed the bus, she was late for school." In this sentence, it is alright to begin the sentence using the word BECAUSE. But using these words at the beginning of sentences also depends on who is telling the story. If the narrator is telling the story, but has no part in the story, then it's NOT OK to use the words AND,BUT,and BECAUSE at the beginning of sentences. If the narrator is telling the story from their point of view, and also takes part in the story, then it IS OK to use the words AND,BUT, and BECAUSE at the beginning of sentences because the narrator is talking to you, so is therefore talking as any other person would talk.

Answer 3

If the sentence begins with a dependent clause joined to an independent one, then it can be grammatically correct.

For example: "But in the interest of saving time, let's just say I'm right and move on to other questions."

Answer 4

It's not really okay to start a sentence with but or and. It's not a horrible crime against grammar, but it's still unadvisable. Good luck!

Answer 5

Yes, its not like your in school where your taught not to use those in the beginnings of sentences.
When I write, I use and and but and because to start sentences.
Good luck on becoming an author! I heard you wanted to be one!

Answer 6

Certainly. People who have been writing for a long time 'fall into' this. Ex. Rowling. (She is a literary arts teacher, I think.) You'll see if you continue w/ writing.

Answer 7

I really prefer however instead of but and also instead of and. Sounds more intelligent.

Answer 8

If it sounds natural, do it. But if it sounds horribly wrong, don't.

(that was deliberate)

Answer 9

But of course, my dear.

Answer 10

in middle of conversation its right to use it
and not while writting