On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 07:59:05PM -0600, Sean Connor wrote:
Never begin a sentence with a conjunction (such as "and" or "but")
Second of all, despite what your elementary school teachers may have told
you, it is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with a conjunction.
The reason elementary school teachers tell you never to start a sentence
with a conjunction is that it's easy to end up with a sentence fragment if
you do. So, as long as the sentence is complete, there is no problem here.
And indeed, 'But if anything, Ranma looked even more scared.' is a complete
sentence. It is grammatically correct. Whether the original author wants
to put the 'but' in there is a stylistic matter, as the original sentence
can be corrected simply by putting a comma after 'anything'.
Arrgh!... Should have checked that grammar guide before I posted...
The sentence in question is not grammatically correct after all, because the
'but' needs to introduce a dependent clause. That's not done here.
It is acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction, though
'Because it was raining, the carnival was cancelled.'
The above is a grammatically correct sentence which begins with a
conjunction.