Location: Season 7, Chapter 4, Page 3
(http://www.textfugu.com/season-7/but/4-3)

Original Text:

Lastly, you should never start a sentence with が. It’s kind of like how you shouldn’t start a sentence with “But” in English (though, I suppose I do that every once in a while).

NO: すしを食べます。がうなぎがきらいです。

Along the same token, you shouldn’t put a comma before the が either, just like how you wouldn’t put a comma before a “but” in English as well.

NO: すしを食べますが、うなぎがきらいです。

Both statements regarding the usage of ‘but’ in English (shouldn’t begin a sentence and shouldn’t have a comma before) are errors.

‘But’ at the beginning of a sentence is not incorrect, though this is a popular superstition.
(http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarfaq/f/butsentencefaq.htm)

Conjunctions need a comma before them when connecting two independent clauses.
(http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm)

So perhaps a better way to remember the proper usage of が is that it’s the opposite of how ‘but’ is used in English.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by  nelemnaru.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by  nelemnaru.