about "and", "but" and "so"

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Hi,I'm an ESL teacher.  Can someone help me understand why writers use "and", "so" and "but" at the beginning of sentences?  I see this all over in storybooks.  Should I teach this to my ESL students?  How do I teach the usage of such words?Thanks,MVB

Clive · Accepted Answer

Ji,

I'm an ESL teacher. Can someone help me understand why writers use "and", "so" and "but" at the beginning of sentences? I see this all over in storybooks. Should I teach this to my ESL students? How do I teach the usage of such words
It's certainly common, as you know. Some people would say that this is always wrong, at least in formal writing. I wouldn't say that, but I don't think it's good to do it a lot. It often serves as a good way to get a dramatic effect, to get the reader's attention to what you have written, although obviously if you do this a lot the effect is lost.

Here's my advice.
If your students are at a low level, don't teach them about this, because they need to get the basic idea of how to use these words as conjunctions, ie to join clauses.
If your students are at a higher level, explain it in the way I suggested in my first paragraph.

Best wshes, Clive

about "and", "but" and "so"

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