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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

"However"

A lot of writers seem to use "however" as a conjunction where "but" might work. I have a problem with this because when I read it I always pause before saying "However" which suggests to me the writer is better off using a full stop followed by a new sentence starting with "However". I have discussed this with many people and some say it is a special case where a semicolon should be used instead of a comma. Any thoughts?
  

Top answer

However is a conjunctive adverb. There are two possibilities for punctuation when joining two independent clauses. 1) Two sentences.

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  • However is a conjunctive adverb.
  • There are two possibilities for punctuation when joining two independent clauses.
  • 1) Two sentences.
  • The man is old.
  • However, he still can run a mile faster than most young boys..
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2 Answers
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However is a conjunctive adverb.
There are two possibilities for punctuation when joining two independent clauses.
1) Two sentences. The man is old. However, he still can run a mile faster than most young boys..
2) Semicolon: The man is old; however, he still can run a mile faster than most young boys.

There are many references that describe this rule.
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Hi,

I always use a period. I very rarely use a semi-colon..

A semi-colon is not wrong. However, note that writing full of semi-colons starts to look a bit odd. Silly, even. So don't use too many.

Clive
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