Here is a query from a reader. Sanjay Saralaya writes: “Can one start a sentence with words and phrase such as ‘as’, ‘because’ and ‘due to’? Is it correct to say ‘As I was unwell, I could not attend ...

They can be used to join together two clauses in a sentence. However, the clauses need to make sense on their own. For example: I had a terrible cold. I still went to work. You can add the ...

The landlord refused to respond to inquiries. Because he said he needed to talk to his lawyer. When told the phrase beginning with “Because” was a sentence fragment, the student objected: But you said ...