When to use passive voice
13 December 2011
When should passive voice be used? George Gopen can think of five instances. (Hat tip to Stephanie West Allen.)
You can start a sentence with any part of speech
01 December 2011
Recycled from a comment to this post, answering the question whether it’s okay to start a sentence with a conjunction:
Of course it’s okay. I’ll take it a step further: no part of speech is disqualified as the first word of a sentence. For instance:
Noun: John kicked the ball.
Verb: Get ready.
Adjective: Dark clouds formed.
Adverb: Merrily we rolled along.
Preposition: Of course it’s okay. (It’s also okay to end a sentence with a preposition, but that’s a topic for another post.
Conjunction: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:8, King James Version)
Oh, and you can start a sentence with an interjection too.