Starting a sentence with "As ..."
i are an english speaker
awkward. It really doesn't seem to make much sense. Check out the
following nonsense sentences:
As I do not feel well today, I will call in sick.
As my newspaper didn't get delivered this morning, I will call to
cancel my subscription.
As I did not hear him come in, I will call to remind him to come by.
Now, I think the sentences can be corrected by substituting the word
with "Since." But does anyone have opinions on this usage of "as"?
I think it's very similar to the following fractured usage:
"In order to better serve you, please enter your phone number now."
Robert Lieblich
> What's the deal here?
We've never figured that out. Maybe you could tell us.
> I find starting a setnce with "As" incredibly awkward.
You need more practice. It gets quite easy after a while.
> It really doesn't seem to make much sense.
I don't know why -- and merely saying that it doesn't make sense
doesn't make it so.
> Check out the following nonsense sentences:
They're not nonsense, but let's check it out.
> As I do not feel well today, I will call in sick.
>
> As my newspaper didn't get delivered this morning, I will call to
> cancel my subscription.
>
> As I did not hear him come in, I will call to remind him to come by.
There's nothing wrong with any of them. At most they are slightly
old-fashioned. "As" as a synonym for "because" is solidly established
in the language. You can replace each of your "as"s with "because" or
some other word of similar meaning, but there's no need to.
> Now, I think the sentences can be corrected
They don't need correcting. They are correct as written.
> by substituting
You mean "replacing," don't you? Check "substitute" in a good usage
book. Here's a start:
<http://www.bartleby.com/68/13/5813.html>
> the word with "Since."
Well, yes, but that's really no better.
> But does anyone have opinions on this usage of "as"?
I do. See above.
>
> I think it's very similar to the following fractured usage:
> "In order to better serve you, please enter your phone number now."
No, it's quite dissimilar. And not all that "fractured." Do you have
any doubt what is meant?
If this post is typical of your views of the language, you might be
better off asking others' opinions rather than offering your own.
--
Bob Lieblich
I really *are* a English speaker, and I can capitalize too
owlcroft
<grammar...@english.usage.com> wrote:
> What's the deal here? I find starting a setnce with "As" incredibly
> awkward. It really doesn't seem to make much sense. Check out the
> following nonsense sentences:
>
> As I do not feel well today, I will call in sick.
>
> As my newspaper didn't get delivered this morning, I will call to
> cancel my subscription.
>
> As I did not hear him come in, I will call to remind him to come by.
>
> Now, I think the sentences can be corrected by substituting the word
> with "Since." But does anyone have opinions on this usage of "as"?
It is not actual error, but it poor style. Follett remarks that "The
novice's resort to _as_ with the meaning _since_ or _because_ is
always feeble." He quotes the 1934 Webster's: "_As_ assigns a reason
even more casually than _since_." Follett continues" "What is worse,
the untrained or heedless writer turns to this weak subordinating link
to introduce a co-ordinate clause or what should be his main clause.
In either case, he ruins emphasis." He concludes his further remarks
on the issue thus: "It follows from all this that the causative _as_
is useless except to tone down the reason assigned: 'As it makes no
difference to you, I will take the later train.'"
That seems to me a complete and satisfactory disposal of the topic.
> I think it's very similar to the following fractured usage:
>
> "In order to better serve you, please enter your phone number now."
I think it very different: quite unrelated.
Django Cat
>
> What's the deal here? I find starting a setnce with "As" incredibly
> awkward. It really doesn't seem to make much sense. Check out the
> following nonsense sentences:
>
> As I do not feel well today, I will call in sick.
>
> As my newspaper didn't get delivered this morning, I will call to
> cancel my subscription.
>
> As I did not hear him come in, I will call to remind him to come by.
I'm not buying 'nonsense'. However, how do you feel about the
sentences if we swap the clauses round in each one? What's the
difference?
- I will call in sick as I do not feel well today.
- I will call to cancel my subscription as my newspaper didn't get
delivered this morning.
- I will call to remind him to come by as I did not hear him come in.
Do you do any other future forms? 'Going to' is fun.
DC I are also a english Speaker two.
--
i are an english speaker
here. When my proofreader keeps replacing "since" or "because" with
"as," the meaning is lost. "As" is weaker than "since" and much
weaker than "because." This dilutes or entirely removes my emphasis.
Check out this sentence:
Since IBM's stock trades actively with sufficient volume, I consider
its prices to fully reflect all publicly-available information.
It may not be grammatically incorrect to replace "since" with "as."
But it's weakens the reason cited for the conclusion.
Suzanne La Follette is right. These things are not interchangeable.
You should be able to convey these different shades of grey with
written English.
Athel Cornish-Bowden
<gramm...@english.usage.com> said:
> What's the deal here? I find starting a setnce with "As" incredibly
> awkward. It really doesn't seem to make much sense. Check out the
> following nonsense sentences:
>
> As I do not feel well today, I will call in sick.
>
> As my newspaper didn't get delivered this morning, I will call to
> cancel my subscription.
>
> As I did not hear him come in, I will call to remind him to come by.
All of these seem to me to be perfectly ordinary sentences, with
nothing awkward about them. Yes, "as" is weaker than "because", but
sometimes one needs a weak word, and in all three examples "because"
would be more awkward than "as".
>
>
> Now, I think the sentences can be corrected by substituting the word
> with "Since."
Not with an improvement.
> But does anyone have opinions on this usage of "as"?
>
> I think it's very similar to the following fractured usage:
>
> "In order to better serve you, please enter your phone number now."
Nonsense.
--
athel
dece...@kcparrish.edu.co
Ian Jackson
english speaker <gramm...@english.usage.com> writes
>awkward. It really doesn't seem to make much sense. Check out the
>following nonsense sentences:
>
>As I do not feel well today, I will call in sick.
>
>As my newspaper didn't get delivered this morning, I will call to
>cancel my subscription.
>
>As I did not hear him come in, I will call to remind him to come by.
>
>
>Now, I think the sentences can be corrected by substituting the word
>with "Since." But does anyone have opinions on this usage of "as"?
as/because/since you mention it, = "since").
>I think it's very similar to the following fractured usage:
>
>"In order to better serve you, please enter your phone number now."
in sick, as I do not feel well today". That's equally OK - but at times
(especially if the sentence is going to be long), it's a good idea to
state 'the reason' before stating 'the action' or 'the consequence'.
A better question to ask would be 'Why has everyone, when asked a
question, started to begin the answer with "So...."?' This Americanism
has now suddenly spread to the UK. What was wrong with "Well...."?
>
>
>
--
Ian
Madrigal Gurneyhalt
as well.
Ian Jackson
Madrigal Gurneyhalt <purpl...@googlemail.com> writes
But AFAIC, when starting a reply to a question, the meaningless "Well"
has always been the traditional filler (especially if a second or two of
thinking time is required). To me, "So" is recent interloper and a
usurper (even in the USA) - and simply doesn't sound right at all.
In my experience, "So" is often used in a 'follow-on' question a
previous statement, eg
"We have no money."
"So how are we going to buy food?"
In this instance, it could have been
"Well how are we going to buy food?"
This is because, in both cases, "So" and "Well" mean "Therefore".
However, if you were asked a straight question like "When are going
home?", while you might answer
"Well, it depends on the trains."
it's pretty obvious that "Therefore" would not be used. However, these
days it does seem that a lot of people use "So" - and, to me, that's
simply weird!
--
Ian
Madrigal Gurneyhalt
personally find the 'well' version rather odd in this context.
> However, if you were asked a straight question like "When are going
> home?", while you might answer
> "Well, it depends on the trains."
> it's pretty obvious that "Therefore" would not be used. However, these
> days it does seem that a lot of people use "So" - and, to me, that's
> simply weird!
further thought is necessary before embarking on the rest of the
sentence. You can just as well do without it and no doubt when people
started to use it in this way it sounded just as odd. Besides 'so' does
have form in a similar function.
I actually don't find "So, it depends on the trains." at all odd (though
I probably wouldn't use it myself) as a kind of conjunctive reference
back to the original question and an indication of the conditional
nature of the answer. That seems like a natural expansion of usage
rather than a jarring disjunction with English as we know it to me.
Whatever your or my opinion, however, I suspect that that it will be
with us for the rest of our natural born days. You don't have to like it
but you will almost certainly have to lump it. So be it!