Y6 SPAG question

[MerryMarigold]

Shona tried to look excited, however her friends weren't convinced she liked the present.

Ds Y6 SPAG test. (He had to circle the connective).

I would have thought this is 2 sentences, but am doubting myself since it's in a SPAG test and my grammar is a bit rusty.

Just wondering really, am not about to storm in to school over it.

[DadDadDad]

I share your unease.

My daughter has it drummed in to her to use connectives in her sentences (in order to make them more sophisticated, I assume), but the use of "however" and "therefore" in the middle of a sentence like this does grate with me. Especially, when "but" and "so" respectively do a perfectly good job.

Shona tried to look excited, but her friends weren't convinced...

Shona's friends weren't convinced she liked the present, therefore so she tried harder to look excited.

[VintagePerfumista]

The connective is "however" but it's a rubbish example as we'd usually use "however" at the beginning of a sentence.

I suppose if there were a semi-colon after the first clause it would just about be OK, but it's clumsy, and clearly been written to shoehorn "however" in. "Although" would be fine in that position in the sentence.

[MerryMarigold]

Thanks. I have become enlightened on so many things - subordinate conjunctions etc. However (see what I did there), it annoys me that I was never taught grammar and yet my grammar seems to be better than the grammar in some of the tests!

[worriedmumtoteen]

That's a comma splice!

It should be

Shona tried to look excited: however, her friends weren't convinced she liked the present.

[SenecaFalls]

I agree it's a comma splice, but the real problem is that the sentence uses a conjunctive adverb (however) instead of a coordinating conjunction (but).

In American English, the punctuation (if however must be used) would be a semi-colon before "however" and a comma after it.