Is it ok to start a sentence with but?

Answer 1

It is, but not for report papers and using proper english.

Sorry, but that's misinformation and can be shown to be such by doing a bit of what is known as 'reading'.

Writers as distinguished as T. S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, W. B. Yeats and Bertrand Russell - in fact any famous writer you care to name - have started sentences with 'but'. Anyone who read at all widely would know this. To suggest that it's not proper English is the kind of nonsense and misguided conditioning that was indoctrinated into children by ignorant schoolteachers who also told us other nonsense like not starting or ending a sentence with a preposition (which Winston Churchill famously ridiculed - "the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put") or splitting infinitives. These are all nothing more than outmoded misconceptions arising from a bygone, prescriptive approach to language. Such myths have no place in the modern age or in contemporary writing, whether on the internet or in books and magazines and other printed literature.

But don't take my word for it if you know what I'm getting at!

Answer 2

Yes, it is acceptable to start a sentence with "but," especially in informal writing or in cases where the sentence's structure benefits from its use. However, in formal writing, it is generally recommended to use it sparingly at the beginning of a sentence.