Comments on: Grammar Lesson of the Day: Because

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 03:06:53 +0000

I repeat Fred’s query.

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:43:39 +0000

Can you recommend a study tool that I can use with my children to teach them grammar?

By: Tony Esolen

Tony Esolen — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:22:44 +0000

Dear MPB: The teachers themselves, most of them, do not know what a subordinate conjunction is. They have picked up the “rule” as part of the detritus of what used to be the study of grammar and style. Heck, all they would have do to would be to say, “Dear, you haven’t finished your sentence. Look, it doesn’t contain a main idea. Here’s what you need to do.” The result now is the worst of all outcomes. The kids know no grammar. What little they are taught is confused and often wrong. And they STILL don’t know what a sentence fragment is.

By: MPB

MPB — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:33:33 +0000

Teachers demands their students not start a sentence with ‘because’ (and other subordinating conjunctions) because they believe it makes a clearer distinction to children the difference between subordinate and main clauses. I don’t believe it helpful in teaching grammar but, what do I know?

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:40:58 +0000

Sorry to say, but the English teachers I had in High School in the 60s also demanded this. I eliminated such sentences from the essays I submitted in English classes; elsewhere I happily ignored the diktat.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:17:27 +0000

Yes, please. From the time I was four years old, I read everything I could get my hands on (yes, I was precocious…and yes, I’m the sort of nerd who squeals with joy when the new issue of First Things arrives…). Because I was so well-read, when my 3rd-grade teacher announced that “You can’t start a sentence with ‘because’”, I *knew* she was lying. So, I called her on it. (Yes, I was one of *those* children). She, of course, told me that I was right, but that the other students probably didn’t know how to read and write that well, and so the rule in her classroom was to not start sentences with “Because”.

Because I can, I do it all the time now. :D

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:34:50 +0000

“I have no idea where high school teachers came up with this one. ”

I have no idea either, but I can confirm I was taught that, along with “And” and “But.”

What a joy it was to discover that we can use And or But to start sentences. Sometimes I now start a sentence with And just to relish the fact that I am allowed to do so. The police won’t come. I will not be vilified for making a grade school level grammar mistake just because I said “And…”

I am waiting for the day when we can also start sentences with “Which” – which I love to do.

I’ll probably not live long enough to see the day, my it’s on my wish list.