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Originally Posted by scottyboy

But there is no such rule: as far as I'm aware grammarians don't agree on whether or not starting a sentence with a conjunction is "wrong".

Do English grammarians agree on anything? Even books that some teachers regard as being authoritative (Murphy being a great example) are simply written to suit the language.

I disagree that it's ugly: it's perfectly natural (see, I did it again with "but" just up there").

So much of English is natural but wrong though - look at the way that Scots will use phrases like 'my hair needs washed' or 'the cat wants out' - both of those are absolutely natural to my ears too, but they're wrong.

Anyway, even if it's natural, it would be punished by Cambridge examiners. And given that Cambridge exams are the closest thing that English has to a standardised test that's widely accepted - then they do have considerable influence, even if you or I don't agree.

I disagree that it's taught as a rule in schools: I don't remember being taught so and as I pointed out, apparently neither does anyone else here.

Probably because most of them are arguing for the sake of argument. It certainly was taught in my primary and secondary schools, and even in different countries. Or maybe they simply had bad teachers that accepted the use of 'because' to start a sentence.

You all but claimed it was a rule then unsuccessfully sidestepped after showing yourself up as incompetent.

It's as good a rule as you'll get in English grammar - bearing in mind that even accepted authorities disagree on English (oh, the joy of having to explain to someone why Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries aren't exactly the same).

Anyway, bearing in mind the widespread use of 'because' to start a sentence by people that can easily be called chavs, would you or anyone else educated really want to use it?

Do you really teach people to start sentences with because?