sentence opener

[Serena1977]

Can I have a suggestion for a sentence opener for this sentence please

_ he could buy a new game, Bill asked for some money.

Is there absolutely no context?

Hoping
Wishing
Thinking

So...

That isn't ideal though, and I'd go with:

'Bill asked for some money so he could buy a new game.'

So

I didn't know how much people hated 'so' as a sentence opener until MN. People properly become murderous. Terrifying grammar weirdos.

thank you all!

I'd go with 'Hoping' or similar.

DD had an acronym for sentence starters for GCSE and I'm pretty sure this was one of them.

@MrsTerryPratchett In the olden days, we was taught that it ain't right to start a sentence with a conjunction, innit?

Notwithstanding

In the olden days, we was taught that it ain't right to start a sentence with a conjunction, innit?

But (see what I did there ) it's always right to end with 'innit', innit? I love a good innit. I'm assuming you're from my old manor.

[quote supremelybaffled]@MrsTerryPratchett In the olden days, we was taught that it ain't right to start a sentence with a conjunction, innit?[/quote]
But that really doesn't apply these days, except perhaps in formal business or legal letters. (See what I did there?) 😉
In creative writing or exchanges between friends it matters not a jot.

And a cross post too. Jeez.

Before he could buy a new game...

In order that he could buy a new game...

@SiobhanSharpe

And a cross post too. Jeez.

So I'm fine with that. But maybe I shouldn't be. And it's fairly common now.

It’s an unnecessarily complicated construction to put the sentence that way round, OP. It is simpler, more logical and more easily understood by a non native speaker, to say: “Billy asked for some money to buy a game.”

MrsTP 😉😄

I think that to start this particular sentence with 'so' is different from the 'so' that people object to. In this context it would mean "so that..."

Perhaps?

Babdoc agreed -- it's also a much weaker sentence construction, unless the writer has a particular point to make or explain.
Even then it would be crying out for an edit.

“So that”. It’s a subordinating conjunction, which can be moved to the beginning of a sentence. It’s showing purpose.

“So” sometimes replaces “so that” and works the same way.

Sometimes “so” is a coordinating conjunction explaining the result and therefore cannot be moved and doesn’t make sense at the beginning.

It’s really subtle and quite complex though.

I’ve thought of an example when it’s coordinating (explaining result instead of purpose)

It rained so I put my umbrella up.
So I put my umbrella up, it rained. (Doesn’t work as it’s not functioning as a subordinate clause)