By Ruth Oji

THERE are lots of assumptions that people have about English grammar. This has led to the postulating of many rules that are needless. In this column, I focus on helping to break some of those grammar myths. So grab your coffee, sit back, read and enjoy it! And more important, apply the learnings to your writing.

Prepositions are one word class that we often can’t do without when writing. What are prepositions? They are words that are used to indicate the relationship between two nouns/noun phrases. They often relate to time and space and are used to show location and direction. The most known prepositions are at, on, and in; however, there are others such as beneath, beside, between, in front of, toward, under, within, and through.

Perhaps you have heard it said that sentences shouldn’t end with a preposition. When this is mentioned, one might call to mind Winston Churchill’s sarcastic response to a pedant who wrote to tell him he made a mistake by putting a preposition at the end of his sentence: ‘This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.’

Of course, the sentence should have been: ‘This is the kind of arrant pedantry I will not put up with’. I suppose the latter should have been it but for the pedant’s insistence on not ending a sentence with a preposition. I wonder if the pedant thought the former was the best way of conveying that. 

Keep in mind that the old rule to not end sentences with prepositions emanated from the view of the word ‘preposition’ which in Latin meant ‘pre – before’ and ‘position – position’; that is, it is a word that should appear before another word and not after it. Grammarians back then took it so literally that they insisted prepositions must not come at the end of sentences where they do not have any words after them. Does that make any sense? You can judge from the example of Churchill’s response.

You also may have heard it said that infinitives should not be split. What is an infinitive? It is a base form of a verb, without an inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense. In much simpler terms, an infinitive is any verb that is preceded by the word ‘to’, for example, to run, to see, to dance, to climb, to jump, to cry, to beg, to laugh, and to wonder.

How then might an infinitive be split? This happens when the infinitive takes on an adverb after the ‘to’, just before the verb. It, therefore, splits the infinitive, as in ‘to quickly go’, ‘to narrowly escape’, ‘to tearfully give up’.

The old rule to not split infinitives by lodging adverbs between them emanates from 19th century grammarians who thought that since in Latin an infinitive was usually one word and thus not split, it was wrong to split the infinitive in English. However, this should not be the case in English, given that infinitives are two words and not one.

If the use of a split infinitive would be awkward or sloppy, it would be better to avoid the split but put the adverb either before or after the infinitive; for example, ‘precisely to come’ or ‘to come precisely’, where ‘to precisely come’ is awkward or does not highlight the point.

Another grammar myth we need to break is that one should not use conjunctions to begin a sentence. What are conjunctions? They are words used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. There are coordinate conjunctions known by the acronym ‘FANBOYS’ – for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so – and there are subordinate conjunctions (words or phrases used to link a dependent/subordinate clause to an independent one) – although, before, after, even though, as long as, while, even if, if, since, though.

The myth states that when conjunctions such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘because’ are used to start a sentence it is wrong. One reason for proposing the obsolete rule that conjunctions shouldn’t be used to start sentences is because as in the case of ‘because’ – which is a subordinate conjunction and introduces a subordinate clause – people who use it may sometimes forget to supply the independent clause that completes it.

For example, someone who writes: ‘Because it rained’ and stops the sentence at that causes a sentence fragment to occur because the independent clause that should complete its meaning is missing. Rather than tell people to not use subordinate conjunctions, I think it is far better to educate them on the need to avoid sentence fragments by completing the sentence. A sentence like: ‘Because it rained, I was late to work’ is a complete one that considers the independent clause ‘I was late to work’, which gives us the total picture and the reason for the subordinate clause. 

See other examples:

Because my parents trained me, I owe them a debt of gratitude.

Because I love you, I am willing to make sacrifices for you.

Because you excelled in your academics, I will take you on a trip to Dubai this holiday.

These examples show that it is okay to use ‘because’ in starting your sentences. Take note that at the end of the subordinate clause there is a comma before the independent clause is placed. That is a key rule for sentence structures of this kind – complex sentences.

However, if you were to reverse the positioning of the clauses, i.e., put the independent clause first and the subordinate clause later, you do not have to use the comma at all. Of course, such format takes away the worry of those who insist that sentences shouldn’t start with ‘because’. The sentences above would then be written thus:  I owe my parents a debt of gratitude because they trained me.

I am willing to make sacrifices for you because I love you.

I will take you on a trip to Dubai this holiday because you excelled in your academics.

Note that no commas were used. Still, these are beautifully written complex sentences.

It is, therefore, also not wrong to use coordinate conjunctions to start sentences. During the review of my PhD thesis by an external examiner, he was cross with me for using ‘and’ and ‘but’ in some instances in my write-up.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Starting your sentence with a conjunction can be striking because it is unexpected; however, if you overdo it, your readers won’t be struck any longer, and your writing could give off a childish outlook. So do give it a try to see what it looks like! But do not overdo it.

Bonus: don’t forget that there is now an acceptable single ‘they’ and ‘them’, so you do not have to keep repeating the third person pronouns he/she where the gender is not known. For example, some still write: ‘Anyone who parks his/her car at the parking lot should be watchful of his/her car’; however, with the use of the singular ‘they’ and ‘them’, it is perfectly fine to write instead: ‘Anyone who parks their car at the parking lot should be watchful of their car’.

Don’t stay stuck in the old ways. That said, please know your audience and write as would please them. As you grow as a writer and have more opportunities for self-expression, do not be limited by needless rules that do not add much, if anything, to the grammar of the language. Take note of these grammar myths and break them in your writing!

•Dr. Oji is a Senior Lecturer of English at the Institute of Humanities, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos