Starting a Sentence with ‘Because’

Many of us have been told since elementary school that you can’t start a sentence with “because.” The truth is, it’s perfectly acceptable as long as you’re writing a complete sentence.

“Because” is a concluding adverb which means that what follows after it is a subordinate clause that can’t stand alone.

• Don’t visit Vermont in the winter because there are too many tourists.

“Don’t visit Vermont in the winter” is the main clause and a complete sentence. If you just wrote, “Because there are too many tourists,” your sentence would not make any sense. However, you can write the sentence like this:

• Because there are too many tourists, don’t visit Vermont in the winter.

If the main clause comes second in the sentence, make sure you have a comma.

Try It!

Determine whether the sentences are correct, incorrect, or a fragment, and correct the incorrect ones.

1. Because that dog is a menace and you shouldn’t pet strange dogs anyway.
   2. Because he left early Ed was able to beat the traffic.
   3. We didn’t enjoy the trip because it rained.
   4. Because it was warm, I wore shorts.

Answers: 1. Fragment; 2. Because he left early, Ed was able to beat the traffic; 3. Correct; 4. Correct.