4 Grammar Rules That You Don’t Need Anymore

Thursday, October 33 min read

Dig out your old grammar workbooks. Got them? OK, now throw them away! That’s right, we’re talking about breaking the rules. Grammar is constantly evolving, meaning rules that were once drilled into your head by schoolteachers are now more like guidelines — sometimes to be ignored. Here are four grammar rules that you no longer need to stress about. (We're breaking one of the rules right away!)

1. Don’t end sentences with prepositions.

“You don’t know with whom you’re messing!” is probably not the phrase you’d hear during a heated argument. Chopping and restructuring prepositional phrases was probably one of those lessons touted by your 7th-grade English teacher, but the need for such a rule is questionable at best. It’s wordy, it doesn’t do anything to further clarify the meaning, and it makes the speaker sound awkwardly pretentious.

Seventeenth-century linguists argued that because a preposition can’t be stranded in Latin, the same should be true for English. But Latin departs from English in myriad ways, the least of which being stranded prepositions. While you should probably still use the old standby for academic papers or journalistic writing, this is definitely a rule to toss out of your everyday vocabulary.

The one exception to this rule abandonment is unnecessary tag-ons of prepositions. This means adding prepositions at the end of a sentence when you don't need to. For example, “Where is this bus going to?” can easily be "Where is this bus going?" Fewer words make a more concise sentence.

2. Don’t split infinitives.

“To go boldly where no one has gone before,” just doesn’t have the same ring as Captain Picards’s, “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” While it is true that the adverb "boldly" is modifying the infinitive “to go,” placing the adverb before the verb gives emphasis to the special intent of the verb, before the listener hears it. Trekkies know that something bold is about to happen.

The rule of not splitting infinitives is yet another carryover from Latin. Latin infinitives are a single word, indicating to some linguists that English infinitives should be treated as a single unit. But again, English is not Latin. Split infinitives have been used by some of English’s best writers, from Benjamin Franklin to William Wordsworth, from Samuel Johnson to George Bernard Shaw, so why not you?

3. Never begin a sentence with a conjunction.

But since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. And although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one,” say William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White in The Elements of Style.

Beginning a sentence with a conjunction — such as "but" or "and" — has long been a grave grammatical sin. But beginning a sentence with a conjunction helps to keep thoughts separated and will save you from a confusing cacophony of commas, not to mention allow your reader to breathe between thoughts. Conjunctions, sometimes recognized using the mnemonic FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), but more accurately by Merriam Webster’s mnemonic WWWFLASHYBONNBAN (whether, well, why, for, likewise, and, so, however, yet, but, or, nor, now, because, also, nevertheless), have been used to start sentences for over a millennium.

The Bible uses conjunction-led sentences with abandon:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.

As further evidence, the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style both permit the use of conjunctions to start sentences.

4. Never start a sentence with hopefully.

“It is hoped that the taxi will arrive soon.”

“Hopefully, the taxi will arrive soon.”

"Hopefully" has been unfairly singled out by grammarians as the adverb you should never use to start a sentence. Taxis cannot do things in a hopeful manner, and you, the speaker, are the hopeful one. But English can bend for the sake of conversation. And besides, rarely do grammarians take issue with adverbs like "clearly," "unbelievably," or "fortunately" modifying the following sentence.

Hopefully, you’re able to concisely write to someone without worrying about unnecessary grammar rules. But if they can’t appreciate your interpretation of the English language, find new friends to share your writing with.

Photo credit: Thought Catalog/ Unsplash

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