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FANBOYS at the beginning of a sentence, a la Shmoop.

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There's no experience quite like babysitting toddler triplets of the male persuasion.

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You'll always have the difficult task of convincing the demon spawn to go down for

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nap time.

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If you're lucky, though, someday you'll conquer those triplet hellions...

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...and the FANBOYS grammar rule. The acronym FANBOYS comes from the list of

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coordinating conjunctions...

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..."for", "and", "nor", "but", "or", "yet", and "so".

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Coordinating conjunctions join together similarly constructed words, phrases, or clauses.

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For example, you -- babysitter extraordinaire -- might say, "I told Bert to pee in the

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potty, but Bert decided to pee on the carpet instead."

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In this example, the coordinating conjunction "but" joins two main clauses: "I told

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Bert to pee in the potty"...

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...and "Bert decided to pee on the carpet instead".

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Coordinating conjunctions bring words, phrases, and clauses together, so you tend to see them

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in the middle of sentences.

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But that doesn't mean one of the FANBOYS can't make an appearance at the beginning of a sentence.

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For example, when you terrify your friends with tales of your babysitting experiences,

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you might end a story with, "And then the little brat threw jelly on my shirt"...

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...or, "So I bribed him with gummy bears and Dr. Pepper."

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Although grammar guides will tell you it's cool to use a coordinating conjunction to

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start a sentence...

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...your English teacher may have told you that this is a no-no, for two reasons.

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First, starting a sentence with one of the FANBOYS lends an informal tone to your writing,

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and teens are... informal enough as it is. Second, it's easier to end up with random,

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incorrect sentence fragments if you start sentences with coordinating conjunctions.

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"Or washing the Impala" may start with a coordinating conjunction...

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...but it's just a sentence fragment, and therefore grammatically incorrect.

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Now that we've confirmed it's okay to start a sentence with one of the FANBOYS...

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...thus ruining your English teacher's life...

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...you may be wondering if commas are required after coordinating conjunctions. The answer

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is: "Sometimes." If the coordinating conjunction at the beginning

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of a sentence is followed by an aside, then you need to break out the commas.

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For example, if you were to write about one of the hell spawn you babysit and his penchant

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for harassing the dog...

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...you would say, "And -- comma -- even though Fido hid under the bed -- comma -- little

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Jakey still managed to set the dog on fire."

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The simpler "And little Jakey still managed to set the dog on fire", however, does not

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require a comma after the coordinating conjunction. And that's pretty much it for the FANBOYS.

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You can use them at the beginning of sentences, so long as you want your tone to be informal...

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...and you're careful to avoid grammatically incorrect sentence fragments.

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Now, don't you have some triplets to tame?

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