It’s a little tricky.

Many amateur writers use the word however incorrectly. The most common mistake—and we see it way too often—is using it as if it were a coordinating conjunction. A coordinating conjunction joins elements of equal grammatical rank. In middle or high school, you may have been given the mnemonic device FANBOYS. It stands for for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. These are the only conjunctions that are used to join two independent clauses with just a comma. Here are some examples:

The dog ate the man’s sandwich, and then he chased a squirrel through the park.

The word and joins these two independent clauses. Independent clauses are those that can each stand alone as a complete sentence. The dog ate the man’s sandwich is one. The second is Then he chased a squirrel through the park. A comma is used after the first independent clause except in cases where the two independent clauses are very short, and there’s no chance of confusion, such as He jumps high and runs fast.

Here are a few other examples of coordinating conjunctions joining two independent clauses:

Jane can’t spell very well, nor can she recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Barry always remembers to bring his calculator to study hall, for without it he can’t complete his math homework.

You should brush your teeth twice a day, or at the very least brush once and floss once.

Not difficult, right? But what about the word however? It’s not one of the FANBOYS. There’s no H in there. Yet we often see it used INCORRECTLY as if it were a coordinating conjunction:

She adopted a cat from the animal shelter, however she’s never home to take care of it.

Jeremy saved his money for three years, however he didn’t have enough to buy a car.

I hope you cringe as much as I do when I see the word however used as in these above two examples.

However is a conjunctive adverb, not a coordinating conjunction (not a FANBOY). Remember that an adverb modifies a verb, and the word conjunction implies that it’s bringing two separate ideas together. A conjunctive adverb must use a semicolon to connect two independent clauses, NOT just a comma.

Another option is to use a period and begin a new sentence although the semicolon creates more of a connection. Some other conjunctive adverbs are consequently, moreover, nevertheless, then, therefore, and furthermore. Here’s an example of how to use however CORRECTLY:

If humans do something logical, we call it intelligence; however, if an animal does the same thing, we call it instinct.

So how can we fix the two INCORRECT usages above? It’s simply a matter of replacing those commas with semicolons and adding a comma after however. Here is the CORRECT way:

She adopted a cat from the animal shelter; however, she’s never home to take care of it.

Jeremy saved his money for three years; however, he didn’t have enough to buy a car.

We can also insert the word however into the middle of a sentence (an independent clause) as an “aside,” in which case we enclose it in commas:

Her friend, however, works at home and has had great success with his new puppy.

Sally, however, saved enough money in three years to purchase a used Volkswagen.

So, yes, using the word however incorrectly is way too common, yet a little knowledge of its correct usage will impress business associates, graduate school instructors, and the general reading public. It takes only minimal effort to get it right.

Susan is a retired English professor of 25 years who enjoys all that her home state of Colorado offers. She is an avid road bicyclist, hiker, and viola player with six published books who has really, really—yes really—enjoyed teaching grammar and mechanics to her students.