But Protection
If you thought 'but' was a negative word, or had the idea that you should avoid it - read on.
Why is ‘but’ such an unpopular word? It is short, clear and useful but yet it has had a very bad press recently. When I ask this question, people often tell me that they have been told not to use it because it is a negative word – but I don’t follow that argument. How about these sentences:
• The weather is dreadful, but I am confident that it will clear up by the weekend.
• We have had a great deal of difficulty getting hold of the client, but he has at last signed the contract.
There is nothing inherently negative about the word ‘but’. Its job is to flag up the fact that the second half of the sentence does not follow logically from the first; it is a bit of a surprise that could be pleasant or unpleasant. ‘But’ does often introduce bad news, but that is not the fault of the word, it’s just the way we use it, for example:
• Your CV (curriculum vitae) is excellent, but we have no vacancies that would suit your skills.
So, if you have been told not to use ‘but’, what do you use instead? This is the bit that really winds me up. Apparently ‘however’ is less negative. Excuse me? How does that work? If you use a word to introduce bad news as in the example above, how would it be less negative if you wrote ‘however’ in place of ‘but’?
Do not use ‘however’ in that way. To join two sentences, you need a conjunction like ‘but’, ‘and’ or ‘so’. You can start a new sentence with ‘however’ like this:
• Your CV is well-written and very impressive. However, there are no vacancies in our organisation for a person with your skills.
or you can use it as a little bracketed aside, like this:
• There is no reason to suppose, however, that the new managing director will succeed any better than the last.
but it is incorrect to use it in place of ‘but’.
I accept that this is an unusual piece of writing in that it contains 395 words, 19 of which are ‘but’, but please get the idea out of your head that there is anything wrong with poor, innocent, maligned, hard-working little ‘but’. And by the way, yes you can start a sentence with ‘but’.
Comments
Jane, I quite agree with you. And I especially hate the use of however that just runs on.
By Gillian Bond on 2010 04 14
Hi Jane
Love it!
Did you see our February Sphere Newsletter on the same subject?
Cheers
BM
By But Man on 2010 04 15