If you are not supposed to use the word but, then why does it exist?

which word?

I never had a teacher tell me not to use the word ‘but,’ only that I shouldn’t use it incorrectly.

Just because a word exists, doesn’t mean that you can use it anytime you like.

But, I shouldn’t start a sentence like this, for example.

Some words are best in certain contexts and best avoided in other contexts (such as formal academic papers…) That’s probably what your English teacher meant.

We use a lot of words that don’t exist or actually ‘mean’ anything. Different dialects of English do it all the time. Here in Boston we say hihowahyah? The response is goodenyou?

Your English teacher is probably telling you that you are using the word ‘but’ inappropriately, and that this is causing problems with your paragraph structure.

His or her advice to not use “but” to start a sentence, and to avoid it in your writing, is probably meant not as across-the-board advice for all writers, but as advice specifically aimed at improving your writing.

Oh, the word ‘but’! I get it now!

Just an update, I was Just thinking about this btw (it was 10 years ago)

You are not supposed to use the word “but” to start a sentence because it is a conjunction and thus should link two ideas, but it is perfectly fine to use it within a sentence.

But for the fact that grammar is more subtle and nuanced than simple rules allow for, that advice would be correct.

There is nothing wrong with beginning a sentence with “but”. Look in any modern usage book.

There’s nothing wrong with using it. It is a useful word. It’s just not a good habit to frequently start a sentence with ‘but.’

“But” by itself is a subordinating conjunction; for it to be used correctly, you need an independent clause and a subordinate clause.

If you use it as follows:

He planned to go to the store for a case of beer. But then he checked his wallet and found out that he only had two dollars.

That’s mis-punctuated: you have a complete sentence (“He planned….”), but then the part that starts with “But…” is a sentence fragment, because it has a subordinating conjunction and a subordinate clause, but no independent clause for the to be subordinate to. The correct punctuation is this:

He planned to go to the store for a case of beer, but then he checked his wallet and found that he only had two dollars.

It’s a question of style as to whether freestanding subordinate clauses of that sort are acceptable or not. In excruciatingly correct writing, they are not; in less formal writing, if you can pull it off, go for it.

WOW cwilbur, I don’t get it BUT GA.

“Not only, but also.”

But then, we’d have nothing to argue about, cwilbur.

@knot: (non solo sed etiam. I didn’t have to look it up this time.)

…A verbis ad verbera, ;^). I likes me grammar, arrr.

I’ve had a lot of English teachers and none of them, if my memory holds, described any form of writing as “stinky paragraphs.” But maybe I haven’t met enough English teachers.

Non Ministrari sed Ministrare. That is my college’s motto. We used to joke that it meant “not to be a minister but a minister’s wife.”

Too busy now to think of Latin joke relating to this and this

@gailcalled: and we must remember the advice of E. B. White, who said, “break any of these rules rather than say something downright barbarous.”

And indeed E. B. White broke his own rules

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001803.html

@all: Anyone who invents a mouse who uses paper clips for ice skates can define both “rules” and “barbarous.”