Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions.

Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 17, 2022)

The grammar checker included with Word is quite powerful when it comes to checking matters of style in your writing. One of the things you can have Word check for is whether any of your sentences begin with certain conjunctions, such as "and," "but," or "hopefully." If you want Word to flag sentences that begin this way, follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click the Proofing option at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box.

Click the Settings button. Word displays the Grammar Settings dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Grammar Settings dialog box.

Scroll through the options list until you find the Sentences Beginning with And, But, and Hopefully option. (It is in the Style section of the list.) Make sure it is checked.
Click on OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.
Click on OK to close the Word Options dialog box.

If you enable this grammar-checking option, Word will also flag sentences that use the word "plus" as a conjunction between independent clauses in a sentence.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7547) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 5 + 4?

2022-01-17 07:18:16

David Allen

Strangely, in Office 365, despite having a lot more proofing options, the particular check for a sentence beginning with a conjunction seems to have been removed.
And a good job too!

2016-02-11 12:43:23

Peter Kirkpatrick

That's a bit unfair, given that all Word features evolve through different versions and Wyatt has specifically stated at the head of this tip which versions it applies to.

2016-02-11 08:14:15

peter compo

Kind of misleading tip since this no longer works in Word 2016

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