Grammar myths

Getting wet and chilled will give you a cold. People’s hair and nails continue to grow after death. Alligators live in the sewers beneath New York City. Aspartame is a dangerous disease-causing chemical.

If you believe any of these statements, then you’ve been had. They are urban legends, passed around from mouth to mouth—or nowadays, from inbox to inbox—until they acquire the armour of certainty, when underneath they are only so much fluff.

Myths have remarkable power, and that is as true in grammar as it is in life. Many well-educated, well-informed people hold fast to certain grammatical nuggets they’ve picked up along the way from colleagues, family members or teachers. "It is incorrect to begin a sentence with however," they say. "It is incorrect to split an infinitive or end a sentence with a preposition." They are certain and secure in these rules. And they are also wrong.

This article will debunk some of the most rampant myths of grammar, myths that have lured countless individuals, naive and knowing alike, into the quicksand of grammatical infallibility.

MYTH: Never start a sentence with however.

FACT: It is, and always has been, grammatically acceptable to start a sentence with however.

I had a personal brush with this myth, which is why it’s number one on my hit list. As a grad student in English, I was docked marks by a professor who insisted that it was incorrect to start a sentence with however, something that, in the scholarly deliberation of my painfully serious essays, I did pretty often.

That was news to me. Since I was teaching a first-year grammar course at the time and preferred the idea of teaching things that were actually correct, I decided I’d better investigate. What I found was a pile of grammar books that contradicted my prof. When I showed up at his office, books helpfully in tow, he waved them (and all my sputtering explanations) away, saying he had learned the rule from an Ivy League professor whose wisdom was unassailable. And he refused to change my grade.

Several years and countless grammar books later, and after hearing this unsupported rule from a surprising number of people, I was able to trace the myth to one small but highly influential book: The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. In it the authors say: "Avoid starting a sentence with however when the meaning is ‘nevertheless.’ " Then follows an explanation that defies all logic, common sense and, most notably, actual rules of grammar.

The fact is that however, when it means nevertheless, is a conjunctive adverb. All conjunctive adverbs (including therefore, moreover, furthermore, nonetheless) are grammatically capable of starting sentences. End of story.

MYTH: Never start a sentence with because.

FACT: It is, and always has been, grammatically acceptable to start a sentence with because.

This is probably the most common myth I hear during my grammar workshops. People often pick up this "rule" as schoolchildren, when teachers caution them not to begin answers with because because doing so can lead to sentence fragments: "Because of gravity," "Because he believed in the country." Many people then assume, forever and ever, that beginning a sentence with this word is wrong. The truth is that if the clause beginning with because is attached to an independent clause (a complete thought), the sentence is fine.

MYTH: Never start a sentence with and, but or any other coordinating conjunction.

FACT: It is now grammatically acceptable to begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction.

Grammar books and authorities used to consider it an error to begin a sentence with any of the seven coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Yet English speakers and writers have been doing just that, according to some sources, since the tenth century. Modern grammar texts agree that it’s fine to start sentences with these conjunctions, though some warn against overdoing it, especially in very formal prose, because of the breezy, conversational style it produces.

MYTH: Never split an infinitive.

FACT: It is now grammatically acceptable to split an infinitive, particularly with a single word, for the sake of naturalness.

Like the and/but myth, this is an old rule that’s been overturned. Grammar texts now concur that there’s nothing wrong with splitting an infinitive, even in very formal writing, as long as the interrupting modifier is short (usually just one word) and the split sounds natural. Some authorities point out that the old rule had no basis in English grammar anyway, as it stemmed from a desire to align English syntax with Latin. In fact, as we’ll see with the next myth, placing a modifier between the two parts of the infinitive is a natural thing to do in English.

MYTH: Never split a verb phrase.

FACT: When a modifier appears with a verb phrase, the most natural place for it is between the auxiliary and the main verb.

This myth, which may have grown up as a logical but erroneous offshoot of the "never split an infinitive" rule, is a misconception, pure and simple. It has always been acceptable, indeed preferable, to split a verb phrase with a modifier. If the verb phrase contains more than one auxiliary, the modifier sits most comfortably after the first auxiliary.

MYTH: Never end a sentence with a preposition.

FACT: It is now grammatically acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition, particularly when doing so creates a more natural-sounding sentence.

Like never splitting an infinitive, this is an old rule, once steadfastly cited by sticklers and now as outmoded as a Wang computer. Like the split infinitive rule, this one seems to have entered English grammar through Latin.