Beginning sentences

[WICKES]

Which types of words/phrases should you not begin a sentence with? What should you begin a sentence with?

[Dinkleberry2010]

I can think of no words/phrases that one should not begin a sentence. I think a sentence can begin with any word or phrase.

[Veva]

In my Slovak Literature classes I learned that there are 2 types of sentence beginning, soft and sharp....soft is when you are starting with nouns, names, objects or subjects of the sentence... and sharp is when you are using verbs, adverbs.. usually with inversion in the sentence.... So your question depends on what kind of sentence you want to write... if you are writing a new paragraph in a novel, I recommend sharp starts....:thumbs_up

[Lyn05]

I've been taught that we shouldn't start a sentence with 'but' or 'and'.

[Dinkleberry2010]

lyn, you're right about starting a sentence with and or but. I too was taught in high school and even in some college courses that you should not begin a sentence with the words "but" or "and." But then I noticed that many of the great writers from Jane Austen to William Faulkner had sometimes begun sentences with "And" or "But." I took a college course in Introduction to Library Science wherein the teacher actually took off points from a grade in an essay I wrote because I began a certain sentence with "But."

Is it grammatically correct to begin a sentence with And or But? I suspect that it is grammatically incorrect (I may be wrong), but I say in this case to hades with grammatical correctness. Of course it is of the utmost importance that the writer be grammatically correct as much as possible, but in some cases it is necessary to break grammatical rules.

[Partook]

In addition to what has already been posted, I have been taught to not start sentences with "because." I would stick to these rules, with the exception of poetry, plays, etc. where these words can be used for non-grammatical poetic emphasis.

[MANICHAEAN]

It might pay to look at this subject via how the English language evolved historically, whether in structure, vocabulary or whatever.
Take for example Richard Stanyhurst's translation of the first four books of the AEneid in 1582. In it, the phraseology and sentence starts are only less marvellous than the spelling. But then it showed more than anything else the active throes which English literature was undergoing. The results may have been in a wider context, a false birth, but it is none the less interesting. Thus the poetry of the first half of Elizabeth's reign is as mediocre as the poetry of the last half of her reign is magnificent.
And it must never be forgotten that the literary men of the earlier phase ( mainly translators), were at a hopelessly wrong point of view. It never seems to have occurred to them that English left to itself could equal Greek or Latin. They simply endeavoured, with the utmost pains and skill to drag English up to the same level as these unapproachable languages by forcing it into the same moulds which Greek and Latin had endured. They were basically carrying out in literature what is called in arithmetic "The Rule of False", that is to say, they were trying what the English tongue could not bear.

[xtianfriborg13]

You definitely shouldn't start a you beginning sentence with a "However."

[manuscript]

but these prescriptive rules are absolutely archaic! and they are no longer truly involved in regular usage. however, enslave yourself to what you will.

[cacian]

Oh I do not understand sentences that start like with a deflection.
For example:

I'm
We've
You're

because in spoken we say:

I AM so why write I'M?
WE HAVE many things. ''We've many things'' sounds incorrect to me.
YOU ARE great. why ''You're great'' because it gets confused with YOUR.

I think I just prefect no deflections in writing.

I also find questions without verbs:
you're here?
got it?

Instead full questions with verbs:
Are you here?
Have you it got?